Fuck You (runs Your Cast Iron Pan Through A Dishwasher Cycle)

Just do it. Make up your own constellations. Pick flowers, make them into crowns and dance around in them with your imaginary ragtag crew of found family. Be a fairy. Eat dirt. Run away from society.

i love the magic in jonathan strange and mr norrell. no system, just mysticism, folklore, and nature. that kind of mystery and wonder is something i love in fantasy. don’t need intricate world building or detailed magic systems, give me the sense of wonder.

I hear you call my name And it feels like home

never been about me

So, I saw this image on Facebook, and it was supposedly showing what Queen Nefertiti would have looked like in real life:

Now, I thought this AI generated garbage was just truly terrible on a number of levels; first off, she looks wayyyyyy too modern - her makeup is very “Hollywood glamour”, she looks airbrushed and de-aged, and as far as I’m aware, Ancient Egyptians didn’t have mascara, glitter-based eyeshadows and lip gloss. Secondly, her features are exceptionally whitewashed in every sense - this is pretty standard for AI as racial bias is prevalent in feeding AI algorithms, but I genuinely thought a depiction of such a known individual would not exhibit such euro-centric features. Thirdly, the outfit was massively desaturated and didn’t take pigment loss into consideration, and while I *do* like the look of the neck attire, it's not at all accurate (plus, again, AI confusion on the detailing is evident).

So, this inspired me to alter the image on the left to be more accurate based off the sculpture’s features. I looked into Ancient Egyptian makeup and looked at references for kohl eyeliner and clay-based facial pigment (rouge was used on cheeks, charcoal-based powder/paste was used to darken and elongate eyebrows), and I looked at pre-existing images of Nefertiti, both her mummy and other reconstructions. While doing this, I found photos of a 3D scanned sculpture made by scientists at the University of Bristol and chose to collage the neck jewellery over the painting (and edited the lighting and shadows as best as I could).

Something I see a lot of in facial recreations of mummies is maintaining the elongated and skinny facial features as seen on preserved bodies - however, fat, muscle and cartilage shrink/disappear post mortem, regardless of preservation quality; Queen Nefertiti had art created of her in life, and these pieces are invaluable to developing an accurate portrayal of her, whether stylistic or realistic in nature.

And hey, while I don't think my adjustments are perfect (especially the neck area), I *do* believe it is a huge improvement to the original image I chose to work on top of.

I really liked working on this project for the last few days, and I think I may continue to work on it further to perfect it. But, until then, I hope you enjoy!

Stunning stunning work

Makes me want to go into hibernation so I can wake up after the third book drops already

Gabriel De León from Empire of the Vampire series by Jay Kristoff

Me, watching s1 of iwtv: oh it’s so nice to finally watch a show where my main ship is not only canon but actually the entire focus of the show

Armand: *enters the chat with his barely concealed desire to fuck that old man*

Me: oh no