my most enduring hot take is that the count of monte cristo should have an adaptation where edmond is a woman but no other genders are changed

it wouldn't work in source (sexism! privilege!) but some of these adaptations get so crazy with it anyway where's my lesbian monte cristo

the actual lesbians in the book get written out of a lot of adaptations and i just think it would be cool and fun and good if edmond and mercedes were lesbians too, and i like to ponder how that would change the story

i just like women and want to see a girl go crazy insane the way edmond did #winning

Holy genius. I have so many Genderbent dantès (specifically fgo) wips in my mind

BUT HM ID READ A FIC OF THAT! COUNTESS PLEASE. COUNTESS 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 . GOTHIC STYLED RICH WOMAN AAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

i really need to get into fgo JUST for dantès because what do you mean he's in there. BUT YEAHHHH. either the beautiful and mysterious countess - widowed, of course, and inheritor of her estate, from a distant and ✨ foreign ✨ land where the womenfolk have power, and all the drama that would bring

or a dantés who, like eugenié, has an incredible cross dressing routine. i mean he already has his disguises!!!!

i just like lesbians. and historical lesbian romances are so fun. mercedes and f!edmond having a sort of hidden secret sapphic romance and that adds to the drama of mercedes being stolen away by fernand... guys trust me on this one it would be so good ok guys. everyone just has to get normal about angry and vengeful women with me. thank you

dang i didnt read the post fully YES HE IS IN FGO. I DRAW HIM LOTS AND HIS CLASS IS AVENGER

not only is he avenger he’s also THE avenger…. In-lore the first of his class…. The story which started the trend of people who sought out vengeance and made it their whole being…. He’s so avenger that he’s not the edmond dantes that gained a happy ending sailing off into the sunset with haydee but rather than man so steeped in vengeance that he himself believes that he does not deserve to be called Edmond Dantes for that is not him…. He is the count of monte cristo, nothing more….

WHAT IS FATES GRAND ORDER EVEN ABOUT??? THEY'RE COOKING!!!!!!

Fate Grand Order is a mobile game (jrpg gacha) that started all the way back in 2015, and is still running to this day.

Tldr of Fate Grand Order is you’re playing as the last Master of Humanity (basically a mage that can call upon different figures from history both real and fictional) in order to take back the world from those who would try to destroy it (eg alien gods, different timelines, the demons of the ars goetia, etc.)

You call upon Servants, the previously stated different historical figures both real and fictional, and they have different classes they can come in. There’s the base seven (Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Assassin), but because Fate Grand Order turned out to be a sort of melting pot for the Nasuverse (Nasu being the writer of Fate, and he has other IPs that mesh together with Fate sometimes like Tsukihime and Melty Blood as well as other installments into the Fate series), there are these things called Extra classes. These extra classes are Ruler, Avenger, Moon Cancer, Alter Ego, Pretender, and Shielder

Sometimes they come as anime girls… sometimes they come as anime boys… sometimes they’re furries… you never know what you’re getting rlly

That’s the most basic of explanations I can give as to what it’s about lol theres a bunch of stuff that happens within all that but like,,,, yeah that’s. A lot of things

my most enduring hot take is that the count of monte cristo should have an adaptation where edmond is a woman but no other genders are changed

it wouldn't work in source (sexism! privilege!) but some of these adaptations get so crazy with it anyway where's my lesbian monte cristo

the actual lesbians in the book get written out of a lot of adaptations and i just think it would be cool and fun and good if edmond and mercedes were lesbians too, and i like to ponder how that would change the story

i just like women and want to see a girl go crazy insane the way edmond did #winning

Holy genius. I have so many Genderbent dantès (specifically fgo) wips in my mind

BUT HM ID READ A FIC OF THAT! COUNTESS PLEASE. COUNTESS 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 . GOTHIC STYLED RICH WOMAN AAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

i really need to get into fgo JUST for dantès because what do you mean he's in there. BUT YEAHHHH. either the beautiful and mysterious countess - widowed, of course, and inheritor of her estate, from a distant and ✨ foreign ✨ land where the womenfolk have power, and all the drama that would bring

or a dantés who, like eugenié, has an incredible cross dressing routine. i mean he already has his disguises!!!!

i just like lesbians. and historical lesbian romances are so fun. mercedes and f!edmond having a sort of hidden secret sapphic romance and that adds to the drama of mercedes being stolen away by fernand... guys trust me on this one it would be so good ok guys. everyone just has to get normal about angry and vengeful women with me. thank you

dang i didnt read the post fully YES HE IS IN FGO. I DRAW HIM LOTS AND HIS CLASS IS AVENGER

not only is he avenger he’s also THE avenger…. In-lore the first of his class…. The story which started the trend of people who sought out vengeance and made it their whole being…. He’s so avenger that he’s not the edmond dantes that gained a happy ending sailing off into the sunset with haydee but rather than man so steeped in vengeance that he himself believes that he does not deserve to be called Edmond Dantes for that is not him…. He is the count of monte cristo, nothing more….

@factual-fantasy

i'd like to add that the shadow color isnt necessarily dictated entirely by the primary light source, but the bounce light! so for the example of a sunny environment, the reason the shadows are blue are because of the light from the blue sky reflects across the environment; but, if the character were to be under tree cover, the bounce light would be coming from the leaves and thus the shadow would look greener.

Yee yee!!! You got it right on the nose!

Bounce light is something I didn't cover but I adore it!

Gotta work on my bounce light 💪

My good friends this is called using a

Gamut Mask

(image via )

James Gurney is an absolute master and gives really good clarity on colour techniques. Yes, it is traditional paint focused, but the principles are the same. Yes it is informed by the environmental colour but as a painting technique it is achieved this way!

I would also suggest that in digital processing, rather than apply a regular colour layer at a mid opacity, try out the different types of layers, Eg. Screen or Multiply. This can give you at least a starting point to help direct your colour palette.

Layer Blend Modes are so so so important to working in digital art. There's a ton of math that goes into figuring out how the layers should blend together, which is why some of the modes you can pick are literally called Multiply, Add, Divide, and Difference (that's subtraction). The graphics software takes the color values of your base and blend layers and runs a calculation to get your resulting layer appearance. The ones that don't have specifically mathematical sounding names are still doing calculations, but they're more complicated (think linear Algebra and higher). Some of them, like dodge and burn, are named for actual photo editing techniques.

While it's not super important to know about the mathematical side of blend modes, I think it's worth knowing at least enough about how each of the categories of blend modes works and why they do what they do; if for no other reason than having a starting point when you start experimenting with them in your work.

An overview of the basic blend modes and how they work from Genevieve's Design Studio: Accessible with minimal color knowledge; practical and illustration focused. https://youtu.be/kMc87hQrJd0?si=TWCB365pKSfWS8p0. (16 minutes) This creator also has a ton of free resources you can download, including a Blend Modes cheatsheet, but fair warning: you have to create an account to get them!

Want to learn even more about the math-y stuff? It has great film visuals! A video from FilmmakerIQ: You need some basic knowledge of RGB color models, understanding of values/luma, and at least a tenuous understanding of Algebraic formulas. (26 minutes) https://youtu.be/F7_kaTP7_W4?si=x0urqXZ8f51nQVKl

cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it

"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain."

-Ursula K. LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

"Evil is boring. Right? I kinda believe in the banality and mundaneness of evil. Evil is just selfish impulses, which at the end of the day are really easy to understand. It’s easy to understand why people do bad things. It’s like “yeah, ok, you’re selfish and scared and cruel, I get it”. Being good is complex and beautiful and hard." - Brennan Lee Mulligan

"How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints." --C.S. Lewis

Chibi Commission: Summer Edmond

‼️It's a commission work for my client. Do not use this drawing without my permission if you're not my client‼️

My VGen: http://vgen.co/mement01315

I love when people ask "how did you learn this skill?" I just started, there's no secret. that's it. a vast majority of the time the only thing holding you back is your trepidation to start.

A damaged lying Buddhist statue is pictured inside a pagoda following an earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, April 3, 2025.

So y’all know the classic edge trope of “my blade cannot be sheathed until it has tasted blood”? What if a magic sword that has that requirement, except it’s sort of inverted. A sword that, instead of being inhabited by an evil spirit which once awakened cannot be lulled back to sleep except by blood sacrifice, was inhabited by a benevolent spirit who would not allow the sword to be drawn unless bloodshed were the only possible solution. A sword whose power could never be misused because it would only allow itself to be used in situations where it was justified. What about a Paladin who spends their entire journey fighting with a sheathed sword, incapacitating but never killing or maiming. The party believes that the Paladin has taken an oath of no killing, until they face the big villain. And it is in that moment, and that moment alone, that the sword will allow itself to be drawn.

Idk, this image set my mindwheels a-turning.

But do y’all see the vision?