Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
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What the fascists did with Grok was horrific, and it isn't an isolated incident. The popularity of image generation tools will only continue to highlight the digital consent dilemma.
Let's say I take a photo of myself.
I should be allowed to do anything I want with it, from replacing my outfit with a bikini to diffusing my image into a synthetic sex tape. I implicitly consent to my own creativity.
Now, suppose I obtained a photo of you.
Arguably, I shouldn't even be allowed to turn you into a Ghibli-inspired illustration without your permission. You have not consented to this “innocent” change, much less anything more malicious.
But how would a software distinguish between a user editing their own face and that of a stranger's?
I strongly disagree with every model proposed for digital age verification on grounds of privacy and self-sovereignty.
On those same grounds, I don't see how it will ever be possible for a system to reasonably perform consent verification. Not of every person in every photo that has been and will ever be taken.
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RE: doesstuff.social/@lety/1158675…
@lety i mentioned wicked problem but i would go even further / epistemic crisis
What the fascists did with Grok was horrific, and it isn't an isolated incident. The popularity of image generation tools will only continue to highlight the digital consent dilemma.Let's say I take a photo of myself.
I should be allowed to do anything I want with it, from replacing my outfit with a bikini to diffusing my image into a synthetic sex tape. I implicitly consent to my own creativity.
Now, suppose I obtained a photo of you.
Arguably, I shouldn't even be allowed to turn you into a Ghibli-inspired illustration without your permission. You have not consented to this “innocent” change, much less anything more malicious.
But how would a software distinguish between a user editing their own face and that of a stranger's?
I strongly disagree with every model proposed for digital age verification on grounds of privacy and self-sovereignty.
On those same grounds, I don't see how it will ever be possible for a system to reasonably perform consent verification. Not of every person in every photo that has been and will ever be taken.
The energy we're bringing into the new year!
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Formal art instruction can be great, but what I have noticed with the artists I admire (professional artists on all levels & hobbyists alike) is that most of them got to where they are by simply going out & making things, by imitating things they were interested in, & by experimenting.
If trying to follow formal art instruction discourages you from trying your own things & from making what you want, it may be doing more harm than good.
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My favorite film directors got started in their childhood: they loved movies so much they started making their own movies at home.
A lot of the visual artists I admire started out in childhood, drawing all the time for the fun of it & to see what they could do.
Everyone benefits from instruction from people who know things about the craft that they don't, but instruction doesn't make you an artist, making art does.
It's ok to be a beginner. It's okay to only know a little about the art form you are trying out. As you practice some things, you'll get good enough at them to be able to turn your attention to other areas.
It really is okay to get excited & start playing around with things *before* you have mastered technique. It's important, actually.
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It’s been a while, and over the past year I’ve moved and consolidated my Fediverse identities, so I thought it was time for an updated #introduction.
I started my Fediverse journey on fosstodon.org and mastodon.art, but it didn’t take long for me to realize I wanted more control over my online spaces. That led me down the path of running my own instances. Along the way, I set up jabber.social (Snikket), fairly.social (Mastodon), and snaps.social (Pixelfed). I kept them running for a while, but eventually realized I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to maintain community servers long-term.
Later, I discovered #selfhosting through #YunoHost. The learning curve—and finding the right VPS—was a bit rocky at first, but once I cleared that hurdle, things settled into a much smoother rhythm.
These days, I host my own instances for Friendica, BookWyrm, FreshRSS, Wallabag, LinkStack, Matrix, and Prosody, and I’m considering adding a dedicated note-taking app as well.
Outside of the infrastructure side of things, I’m an aspiring 2D/3D artist and occasional photographer, with a long-running love of sci-fi. Having my own space on the Fediverse makes it easier to share work-in-progress, experiments, and ideas without the pressure that often comes with larger corporate platforms.
Overall, I’m much happier being self-hosted and away from corporate services.
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The Correct Incantation
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Official homepage of Pepper&Carrot, a free(libre) and open-source webcomic about Pepper, a young witch and her cat, Carrot. They live in a fantasy universe of potions, magic, and creatures.Pepper&Carrot
Never make art for social media
This is not a joke.
You want to make art for fun? Don’t make art for social media.
You want to work in the industry and have your art published? Don’t make art for social media.
You want to be famous on social media? Don’t make art for social media.
Let me explain.
My thesis is that art is hard enough, and making art for social media, just to post, will just lead you to keep running on a treadmill and going nowhere. You might get some attention, but it will be an uphill battle to reach either personal satisfaction or even your career goals.
My thesis is that true satisfaction (and attention) comes from both building great things, and authentically contributing to people’s lives. And it is impossible to do this when the art is limited to an ephemeral post.
This concept first came to my attention while listening to the 3 Point Perspective Podcast (hosted by Jake Parker, Lee White, and, at the time, Will Terry). They once discussed a concept that profoundly impacted me:
An artwork should have at least 3 lives.
Once an illustration is done, it can be either sold as a print, be part of a collection you licence, displayed at an event like an exhibition, be used on products such as t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, or be adapted digitally into a wallpaper or coloring page. It can also be part of a larger project, such as a children’s book, a board game, an album cover. And finally, yes, it can also be a post on social media.
The number “3” is not a hard rule, but it’s there to open your mind to more ways to use your art and share it with more people.
I don’t like Inktober. Or rather, I don’t think you should do it in its classic form:
Because not only is the event very ephemeral (who’s looking at Inktober entries a week after they are posted, let alone the next year?), but by default you don’t build towards anything: once it’s over, most artists just leave their 31 drawings in a drawer and never make anything from it.
But what you can do instead is to use the challenge as a means to create something bigger.
Here are some ways I’ve used the challenge in the past:
Those are only the examples I actually did, but there are many more things you can do. Simply compile your drawings in a book, for example!
My point is clear: if you do anything more than just posting your image on social media, you’re allowing your work to shine brighter, reach more people, and escape the need to always create more just to get attention.
Now, if you still want to post more on social media but without burning yourself out, you might want to check out my post “How to post more without making more art”.
I hope this will be useful to someone. Please take care and make cool art!
#Blogpost #art #mastoart #socialMedia #inktober
Tune into the 3 Point Perspective for expert insights, tips, and inspiration in illustration and visual storytelling.www.svslearn.com
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More: Absolutely Fantastic (8 Photos)
A mural of a young woman climbing a ladder to reach the moon. More!: Cute Art By KATO (7 Photos)
🔗 Follow KATO on Instagram
A clever paste-up of two women leaning from a balcony, placed seamlessly into the frame of a real window. More!: Lovely by Oakoak (10 Photos)
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A mural painted on a ruined wall integrates with the surrounding landscape. The open rectangle frames the horizon, while the painted face aligns with the real scenery, creating a mirrored illusion between wall and world.
🔗 Follow Falko Fantastic on Instagram
A photorealistic mural of a dog painted onto an alleyway wall. The animal appears to be lying across both the wall and utility boxes, making the surface disappear into the artwork. More!: 6 Walls Where Hebs Art Left Something You Can Still Feel
🔗 Follow Hebs Art on Instagram
A chalk drawing on a sidewalk where a small character interacts with a crack in the pavement. The surrounding stone becomes part of the joke, turning a simple detail of the street into a lively scene. More!: Happy Art by David Zinn (10 Photos)
🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram
A mural on a concrete structure depicts a woman in purple sitting with her cat, gazing out toward the sea. The painted balcony opens the small building to its surroundings, fusing real horizon and painted view. More!: Beautiful 3D Art by WD! (8 Photos)
🔗 Follow WD (Wild Drawing) on Instagram
A colorful mural of a young girl resting among flowers, surrounded by birds and kites. The detailed portrait stretches across the wall, mixing realism with fantasy elements.
🔗 Follow Andy J. Céspedes Fernández on Instagram
Two murals of cartoon characters wearing oversized neon glasses. The bold outlines and glowing colors make the figures appear animated against the gray walls, blending pop culture with playful street presence. More by Bill Knospi!: Those Glasses Pop! (10 Photos)
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More: Overflowing With Emotion (15 Photos)
From monumental root sculptures to vibrant murals and intricate land art, these eight artworks transform public spaces in unforgettable ways.Vidar (Street Art Utopia)
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Michael Davydov fills his tiny worlds with vernacular structures, miniature trees, and a healthy dose of surrealism.
thisiscolossal.com/2025/09/mic…
#art
In the miniature world of Michael Davydov, tiny houses, moons, and trees balance precariously in clusters and stacks.Kate Mothes (Colossal)
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DFX4509B (Joshua Mason)
in reply to 🐙ptoothfish🐙 • • •At least that ten-year-old camera very much is still fully functional and can still take good pics, particularly if it's a decent SLR.
For example, the Canon EOS 5D II and Sony a900 are nearly 20-year-old SLRs and they're still very much respectable cameras by modern standards, at 21MP and 24.6MP respectively, and being full-frame on top of that.
Both are old enough to still use basic CF cards though, so if you're still rocking an SLR that old, you'll both need to source some CF cards and a way to read them.