GenCon is just a week away! Gonna be tabling in the art show again this year, so if you want some Lexxy art and awkward but hopefully endearing conversation COME ON DOOOOOOOOWN
the ghosts were always my favorite
did a warmup sketch of the dirty boy yesterday with a new ‘do that makes him look a little less Crazy Old Man and a little more Actually Mid-Twenties
Q
A
Unfortunately they can’t :c
Kyle Webster has some AMAZING PS brush presets for cheap on his Gumroad though! I got them a few weeks ago, highly recommend.
Thanks for Playing //
I was given the distinct honor of creating the album artwork for Volume 10 of the Homestuck OST, which is also available as a print! Big thanks to @WhatPumpkin for inviting me to contribute again and congratulations to everyone who busted ass on this album, ya done good B)
Happy 6/12 everyone!
Q
damned-to-be asked:
On the mercy thing there might actually be a story reason to why she looks so young. Mei who knew mercy before she got frozen says she's suprised mercy hasn't seemed to age a day. Not a knock against your post but I felt you'd find such info neat
A
Yeah, Mercy wasn’t the best example to use (since her field of work probably gives her unnatural youth, if not functional immortality) but when even the oldest lady still looks like she’s in her 20s amid a universally youthful-looking female cast it just feels bad :T
This came at the tail end of a long twitter convo about age and gender representation in video games and I just couldn’t help myself.
also i guess i did this art vs artist thing with my non-motiga work??
my brand is pretty consistently Pale Fantasy Ladies
GIGANTIC HERO PORTRAIT DUMP (haha get it?? GET IT??? no wait come back)
As is often the way with game dev life, most of what I work on ends up being hidden under NDA for months and months before it hits the public and I’m able to share it, which means sometimes I forget I actually have things to share!
One of my main responsibilities at Motiga is creating the “official” portraits of the heroes that get used both in and outside of the game client. While the workload is usually split pretty evenly with my cohort @thatssodagley, occasionally we come together for collaborative efforts (ie: Aisling and Sir Cador) and I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of how seamlessly our work fits together.
You can check out some of his hero portraits here!
“Triggered”
I started writing a tweet, but it turns out that 140 characters is a poor method to discuss complex issues. Who knew? This isn’t intended as a lecture (and I hope it doesn’t come across as one.) It’s more of an anecdote; part of my quest for authenticity and wholehearted living.
Though it’s already fading from twitch chat in favor of newer, danker memes, I’ve noticed “triggered” popping up in streams, chats, and comment threads for a while now. As far as I understand, at worst it is a snarky pushback at the concept of hyper-sensitivity as a cultural currency. But often it’s internet shorthand for “this sucks” or “I’m frustrated.” It’s an especially potent meme because if someone says “hey, not cool, dude” they can just parrot it again and poof! A perpetual meme-tion machine. Babyrage ensues.
I’ve mentioned this a few times on social media, but in early 2015 I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. I haven’t really discussed the root of it, and I’m not/may never be ready to do so, but I hope that you’ll believe me when I say it flat-out sucks. PTSD for any reason is shitty, and miserable, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
What I’ve learned is that the fight-or-flight control center of my brain froze the trauma in carbonite, and as a result it can’t get to my long-term memory. Any time something (a silhouette, a song, or seemingly nothing at all) reminds my fight-or-flight center of that frozen-in-time memory, I’m warped back to the emotional state I was in during the trauma, despite being entirely safe (and knowing it.) This is called being triggered. (Or, a more official definition: the Department of Veterans Affairs says “You may see, hear, or smell something that causes you to relive the event. This is called a trigger.”)
I absolutely believe that “triggered” is overused in the zeitgeist. I can see how it feels non-malicious or inconsequential; as harmless as calling someone salty or a sellout. I suppose I just also want people to understand that even if the intent is to poke fun at one group, there’s another group of people with a really shitty brain thing who are getting caught in the crossfire. PTSD isn’t specific to any group: it doesn’t discriminate based on the subreddits you subscribe to.
When I hear “triggered” from my favorite streamers and gaming buddies, it feels like I’m shrinking. It takes me out of enjoying our hobby, and my gears start turning on my Thursday-evening therapy session that is either looming or has just passed. It trivializes the concept, which steadily perpetuates the powerless feelings that my original trauma created: you’re being too sensitive. Your feelings don’t matter. Be quiet. It’s all in your head.
I don’t expect every space to be safe, or for others to bend over backwards to help me out. But please believe me when I say it’s much more enjoyable to spend time, money, and mental bandwidth on the hobbies I love versus defragmenting the trauma in my brain. I play games to connect with friends, to decompress, to counteract the stresses of daily life. So the echoes of “triggered!” are simply a jarring reminder that the world is a shitty place.
Ultimately people using the meme and myself/people like me are on the same team. I mostly hear it said without malice: a casually chuckled “triggered!” in an awkward moment or frustrated “triggered” groan after their teammate blows it for the seventeenth time. It’s not about me; I know that. It’s a joke, a fleeting meme.
It’s just that these particular “shots fired” are an AOE with friendly fire enabled.
Thanks for reading, internets. <3
Mainblogging this because it’s important as well as personal.
Letting go of using words like this is such a small thing and makes our shared experiences so much better.
Be kind.
(via krisstraub)