• she/her

Recently appeared on this plane. Last seen: Posting (in a serif font) and/or casting spells. my icon and header image are turned around on purpose actually its not like i dont know how to fix it or anything. my age is private information but if you feel the need to know it presume i'm somewhere between 18 and the age you are and treat me accordingly


Below is a version of Meti's Sword Manual from K6BD rewritten to be about drawing, as I saw similarities between it and my experiences learning the fundamentals of drawing. That being said, dont take this as actual advice because it is a rewritten version of a swordfighting guide from a webcomic where god-emperors fight kung-fu angels and all kinds of nonsense like that. Credit also to the website drawabox, the source of my albeit limited knowledge of good draughtsmanship.

Argument

  1. Glory to the Divine Corpse, o renderer of infinities.
  2. I am Meti, of no house but myself. In my 108th year I am surrounded by fools. My compatriots cling obsessively to their destiny, and my only apprentice is an idiot speck of a girl with more talent for eating than skill with the brush. Therefore I have decided to die drowning in the boiling ink of my unfinished sketches, of which there are many.
  3. My master was the greatest lord artist to the king Au Vam, Ryo-ten-Ryam, who first coaxed me into learning the ways of turning the world into lines. As his interest quickly turned to the wholly uninteresting and most useless parts of my body, I returned the favor and relieved him of his.
  4. It is my personal opinion the fineliner pen is best if you can obtain one, but I also favor the ball-point and gel pen. The pencil, crayon, or felt-tip pen are peasant's tools of which I am wholly unfamiliar and so will not speak on them.
  5. Upon meeting me, you might find that my appearance is quite dreadful and unkempt. I have been spat upon by priest, king, and merchant alike. I have no retainers, and possess nothing except a fineliner pen with a null point five millimeters (null point null two inches) wide nib (this is the proper width). This is because I am Royalty and the undisputed master of the principal art of Markmaking. I will make ten-thousand drawings without erasing a line.
  6. From the age of thirteen I practiced every day with the pen. I followed a strict vegetarian regimen, and harsh training of full-body stretches (five), hand-eye-coordination exercises (two bells), pen practice (two bells), and life drawing (three bells).
  7. By the age of sixteen, my mind was a steel edifice. I could draw hands from any angle with no reference, I could paint the landscape between the Yellow City and the Lunar dominions in a day or less and barely strain my wrist. My mastery of the pen complete, I enlisted in the Middle Army's third legion, where I was widely respected as a draughtswoman of incredible power.
  8. When it came time to face my first real challenge, imitating a pre-existing piece by one of the old masters, in my youthful pride and immense skill, I brought all my training and mastery to bear. Scarcely half a day passed before my pencil was shattered into thirty pieces, my eraser was reduced to dust, and my honed mind was broken pathetically in a hundred and forty places from trying to get the angle right. I succeeded by dipping my hands in the paintbuckets and smearing paint on top of paint on top of paint. My thumbs, in this case, proved far more useful.
  9. At that moment, with my thumbs in my paint, I had a revelation. I had trained far too broadly. Existence and the act of creating are absolutely no different, and the essence of both, the purity of both, is a singular action, which is Rendering What You See. You must resolve to train this action. You must become this action. Truly, there is very little else that will serve you as well in this entire cursed world.
  10. I hope that by reading this manual, you will be thoroughly encouraged to become a farmer.

Mastering the Pen

  1. YISUN's glory is great, and you may know this by two paths, the sanctioned words, and the sanctioned action.
  2. The sanctioned words are YS ATN VARAMA PRESH. The meaning of these words is YISUN and their attainment is Royalty.
  3. The sanctioned action is to Make A Mark.
  4. To Make A Mark means creation by the brush of Want, that parer of potentials that excises infinities.
  5. To train with the pen, first master sweeping. When you have mastered sweeping, you must master the way of drawing water. Once you have learned how to draw water, you must split wood. Once you have split wood, you must learn the arts of finding the fine herbs in the forest, the arts of cooking, the arts of pottery, and food storage. You must become familiar with the awl and the spoon in equal measure. When you have mastered all these things you must master building a house. Once your house is built, you have no further need for a pen, since it is an ugly piece of junk and its adherents idiots.

The 18 Precepts

  1. Consider: there is no such thing as a pen.
  2. You must not be spare with the fluidity of your wrists or shoulders. You must have grip on the pen that is loose and unstrained. I heard it said you must be tender with your pen grip, as though with a lover. This is patently false. A pen is not your lover. It is a hideous tool for rendering forms onto paper.
  3. Going onwards, you must adjust your hand as needed, do not keep the pen close to your body, keep your breathing steady. This is drawing the life line. You must watch your arm. Your eyes must be controlled whether planted on fire, air, water, or earth in equal measure.
  4. Breathing is very important! Is the creative breath of life in you not hot? Exhale! Exult!
  5. You must strive for attachment-non-attachment when drawing. Your line must be sticky and resolute. A weak, listless line is a despicable thing. But you must also not cling to your action, or its result. Clinging is the great error of men. A man who makes marks without thought of his action can cut God.
  6. To draw properly, you must continually self-annihilate when drawing. Your hand must become a hand that is drawing, your body a body that is drawing, your mind, a mind that is drawing. You must instantaneously destroy your fake pre-present self. It is a useless hanger on.
  7. A brain is useful only up until the point when you are faced with your reference. Then it is useless. The only truly useful thing in this cursed world is will. You must suffuse your worthless body with its terrible heat. You must be so hot that even if your reference should move or disappear, you shall continue to capture the likeness that has been. Your boiling ink must spring forth from your hand and create what has been, for time is a great and terrible lie!
  8. You must never make 'multiple' marks. Each must be singular in its beauty, no matter how many precede it. You must make your enemies weep with admiration, and likewise should your likeness be captured by such an object of beauty, you must do your best to shed tears of respect.
  9. When drawing a line, it is severe impoliteness to use more than one mark.
  10. A man who finds pleasure in the result of drawing is the most hateful, crawling creature there is. A man who finds pleasure in the act of drawing is an artisan.
  11. Man always strives to draw man. Therefore he who lifts his pen the fastest is the survivor. To pre-empt this, you must live, eat, and shit as a person who has their pen ready. It doesn't matter whether your pen, in actuality, is always by your side, though you will look like an idiot if it is.
  12. Consider: The undefeated draughtsman must be exceptionally poor.
  13. The weak draughtsman reserves his brush strokes. He clings excessively to his brush. His arm is unsteady. His grip is too hard and he is afraid to break his hand. He has a shallow and wandering gaze, his tongue is sluggish and pale. He refuses to exhale the hot breath of the Flame Immortal.
  14. The weak draughtsman clings to victory. He thinks of his life, his obligations, the outcome of the artwork, his desire for beauty, his training, his pride in his mastery. By doing so, he is an imperfect vessel for the terrible fires of Will. He will surely crack. He will not laugh uproariously if he spills his ink. When his pen is shattered, his hands will be too reserved to dip into the paint-bucket.
  15. The weak draughtsman renders his artwork and thinks his task done. He relishes in victory. He casts away his pen and returns to his lover. Little does he know his single mark will encircle the world five times and strike him down fifty-fold.
  16. The weak draughtsman clings to his instrument. It is better you have a pen, but creation must lie under your fingernails, if need be. Learn creation with your elbows, creation with your knees, and creation with your thumbs and fingertips.
  17. In manners of terrain, you must learn to cut yourself from it. You must cut even your footprints from it, if need be. Have complete awareness of each crawling thing and each precious flower, each blade of sweet grass and each clod of bitter earth, each beating heart and each being that thrums with love, hope, and admiration. Only then are you qualified to be their depicter.
  18. Excess heat and excess coldness are undesirable. Learn to read the weather.

Closing

  1. It is said the greatest artist-kings may sublime creation and forget all they learn about the pen. This is true. But the only true path to kingship lies through creating masterpieces.
  2. Moreover, only the worst kind of idiot strives to be king.
  3. My extreme hope is that some measure of wisdom will penetrate the thick skull of my apprentice. If not, may reading this manual demonstrate your powerful disinterest in it, and may its true value die with me.
  4. Reach heaven by violence.


just realised ive been having way more fun Creating after i stopped trying to Be A Creator. you know? like im finally starting to fully comprehend how making things is something humans do like how bees buzz and wolves howl and whatever the rest of that quote is. a painting is a funny magic trick you do, and usually when you learn a magic trick you just brag about being able to do a trick instead of having imposter syndrome about not being a real magician. art is whatever you do when you play around and have fun and make something that might not be necesary for your survival, but which pleases you nonetheless, and capital a Art is when you do that enough of it that it becomes Your Thing. or when people like it enough that it becomes Your Thing. or something idk. my point is that artists have a tendency to get imposter syndrome and i think thats at least in part because of this notion that if you do art it has to be Art and to do Art you have to be an Artist. and you dont it does not matter. even now im starting to be self-conscious about this post and treating it like a capital-p Post that has to be capital-g Good. if anybody is reading this mess of words, i hope you remember that the ultimate judge of the quality of any artpiece is you, and that means you can cheat and say that everything you make is perfect actually. and i think thats good for your self-worth. idk.