*flips the sign and locks the door on my way in*

“don’t romanticise your disorder” actually I’m just trying to enjoy being alive

i love this splatfest artwork because everyone’s having fun and all right but pearl is making the

CUTEST

FACE

EVER

"Learn the fundamentals first" seems like really sound universal advice, and as a former classical musician, I can vouch for it. You will have a more solid foundation for increasing complexity if you put in the time to study in a structured way. If you don't, you'll have a lot of shit to fix later.

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

You have official permission from your local pretentious classical music snob: fuck the fundamentals. You can always unfuck them later (but only if you want to).

Some things to keep in mind:

• Even if you have the privilege to get an autism assessment in the first place, getting an accurate autism assessment is extremely rare. I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS as an infant because I could not sleep through the night (other professionals confirmed the diagnosis but still). I could have just as easily not been diagnosed at all because “women don’t get autism” (this happened, a lot, to a lot of people who were later professionally diagnosed by a different doctor)
• The current autism level system has extremely vague criteria that entirely depends on whoever diagnosed you. A incompetent person will likely put anyone who can hold down a job in level 1 no matter what their difficulties are regarding literally everything else (and yes, there is at least one person who likely would get the level 3 diagnosis on this very website who managed to work from home with a monumental amount of support)
• If you are an older gen Z or older and got one of the diagnoses that were combined into ASD you were generally not reassessed at that time, you were likely given a level arbitrarily by your primary care provider based on what your original diagnosis was (PDD-NOS and Asperger’s getting the level 1 label by default).

So like while yes some autistic people need more help than others, whatever number you were randomly assigned by whatever doctor you happened to pick isn’t an accurate idea at all of what your actual needs are

need a hat that says I WONT SPEAK UNLESS SPOKEN TO AND ITS NOT BECAUSE IM DISINTERESTED AND DONT LIKE YOU I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND SOCIAL INTERACTION AS WELL AS MOST PEOPLE AND ASSUME BY DEFAULT MY PRESENCE IS UNWELCOME AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE SO I KEEP TO MYSELF BUT I DONT MIND IF YOU INITIATE so i can wear it to work

Villain: Choose wisely, Emperor Luo, for one Shizun is real, and the other is a fake!

Luo Binghe: ...is this supposed to challenging?

Villain: How is it not! They are completely identical!

Luo Binghe: I guess they are physically, but their personalities are...

Shen Qingqiu 1: Hurry up and end him beast! I don't have all day!

Shen Qingqiu 2: Don't call Binghe a beast! And he's trying his best!

Luo Binghe: ...

Villain: Huh, that's weird. I lied about one of them being fake, I actually split his soul into two bodies

Shen Qingqiu 2: It's a wonder how such a low IQ villain could get his hands on such an OP item

Shen Qingqiu 1: A no-future good-for-nothing like that probably just stumbled upon it, he clearly has no skills of his own

Villain, on the verge of tears: You know what, you can take them both back, I don't want them around anymore

YESSSSS NOW WE'RE TALKING🔥🔥🔥🔥

sometimes i see an out of context discourse post and im like "hm this really sounds like op is strawmanning a reasonable argument and making up a guy to be mad at." and then i check their blog for context and realise theyve spent the past 72 hours arguing with the human embodiments of the strawman. like damn nevermind im sorry for doubting you. you are fighting battles so cartoonishly evil i cant even fathom them as real. good luck out there.