Original Twitter Upload Date: December 22, 2022
[Albaneigh County Sephardic Temple, Saturday morning during Hanukkah. Rabbi Gabriel Franco gives a speech]
Franco: “I know it’s a hard time for many of us this time of year, having shoved in our faces society’s love of commercialism and gluttony. Quite frankly, it makes me sick as well. You’d think a holiday often called ‘the time of giving’, that originated as a celebration of the birth of somebody known for his charity, would actually be about charity. But charity often goes punished in this cursed society.” [beat] “Well, okay, actually, Christmas originated as a pagan holiday celebrating the Purrsian sun god Mithra, but that’s besides the point.” [points to the vestibule behind the rest of the synagogue-goers] “If any of you would like to do more than the vast majority of the rest of society will, I’m running a donation box in the back. The money will go to the Albaneigh Homeless Aid Center, wonderful organization. Provides housing and food for those less fortunate. That is, when it’s actually donated to. It’s been getting less money in recent years due to the selfishness so prevalent in this modern world. So if any of you would be so kind as to donate your spare change, whether it be a few nickels or hundreds of bucks, it’d be much appreciated. Gracias. Y buena… semana.”
[the synagogue-goers all leave their seats, and make their way toward the exit. Wendy, Nicole, Dolly, and Greg, the former three of whom dressed in 1980s-style suits for the service, begin talking with one another]
Wendy: “I don’t know about you girls, but I like coming here in a suit. It makes me feel important. Plus, I got some pretty good pockets to keep my money.” [pulls out fifty bucks’ worth of Lincolns from her jacket pocket and shows them to Nicole, Dolly, and Greg]
Dolly: [surprised] “Fifty bucks? You’re donating fifty bucks?”
Wendy: “Somebody else needs it more than I do. We shouldn’t forget to do good and share with others, such debts are appreciated, as it’s said in chapter 13, verse 16 of Hebrews. With paraphrasing on my part. And of course, Stella likes to bring up Matthew 25:35 to 36, which isn’t our religion, but they’re still good verses to live by.”
Dolly: “I’ll be donating everything left over from the presents I bought for Hanukkah and Christmas.”
Gregory: “Christmas?! Who would you be buying Chri — oh, right. Stella.” [rolls eyes]
Dolly: “Anyways, I got thirty-three bucks left over.” [takes out wallet]
Nicole: “Ah, dang. I’ve only got a quarter.” [pulls out said quarter from jacket pocket]
Gregory: “You’re still more generous than most of society.” [Nicole puts her hand to her chest and smiles] “As for myself, I’ve got a dollar on me.” [beat] “Alright, let’s do some good.”
[The Wyler sisters and Greg enter the vestibule, and put their money in the donation box. They then head outside, where they find it to be snowing]
Wendy: “Oh, hey, look, it’s snowing.”
Nicole: “Snow! I love snow!” [sticks out tongue to catch some of the snowflakes] “Lehhhhh. Lehhhhh.”
Dolly: [goes cross-eyed as a snowflake touches and melts on her nose. She laughs] “That tickles.”
Wendy: “Hey, you know, it just occurred to me, we haven’t taken a photo yet. Of us in our suits. I think Gilda would appreciate it. Let’s do that before we get in the car.” [points in front of a shrub] “Nicole, Dolly, will you stand over there for a moment?” [Nicole and Dolly do as Wendy says as she pulls out her phone] “And Greg, take my phone, I want you to snap the photo.”
Gregory: “Uh, okay.”
[Wendy takes her place between Nicole and Dolly and puts her hands on her hips]
Wendy: “Alright, girls. I wanna see some smiles here, show those teeth that make you rodents. Say ‘beech’!”
Dolly, Nicole: “Beeeeeeeeeech!”
Gregory: “Beech? Uh, okay, whatever.” [sees the sisters in position on the phone; Wendy is just smiling, not showing her teeth] “Oh, right, showing teeth isn’t really Wendy’s thing.” [snaps the photo]
Happy Holidays, everyone! And if you have a problem with Happy Holidays, then Happy Shut the 🦭 Up. It’s Christmas Day as I post this, and this is a year Hanukkah is going on at the same time. So why not use the opportunity to rebel against Christmas, and post this Hanukkah-set artwork of the Wylers?
Part of the reason I drew this was because I felt you guys deserved better than artwork that had AI-generated assets, to celebrate the holiday season. Gilda as an elf is cute and all, but it’s not cute to have her in a world generated by robots, many of whom probably think she’s a virus upon the earth that needs to be eradicated. Because, you know, robots are often depicted as doing that.
I have enough experience with the fresh pasta effect, that I decided to imitate it here, and try to integrate it into my art style. And by ‘it’, I mean the imitation fresh pasta, not the actual fresh pasta. I still applied the fresh pasta effect to my reference images, to figure out where and how to place the white, black, and three shades of grey as I drew the scenery.
“White? Black? Grey? What white, black, and grey? It looks like full color to me!”
That’s because I colorized the assets with the hue and color effects after drawing them in greyscale initially. Similar to what I did on Auggie Will Prom-ise Margo Anything, but now with a style born from experience using fresh pasta assets. It’s not the most detailed scenery out there, but it captures the general feel of the look I’ve been trying to go for with scenery. Now done by hand instead of by stock and AI images!
As for the snow, it’s just a bunch of white and grey dots made with one of the brushes in ASP, some of which I warped and blurred to make them look like they’re flowing erratically in the wind, rather than just simply falling. The effect turned out pretty cool, all things considered.
Overall, I’m glad I can finally put my AI days behind me. When it comes to using the assets in the artwork itself. As said before, I will continue to use Craiyon to generate references. But no further than that. Further than that is a violation of the First Law of Robotics, which the AIs themselves oughta be programmed to know. Of course, along with the Second and Third.
That’ll be all for this artwork. Next one will be a year-in review… but a bit differently than how I’ve done it the past five years. And also stay tuned in the description of that year in review for… a special announcement. You’ll be excited when you see it. 😏
Until next time, take care, stay safe, get vaccinated, reject crypto, Happy Hanukwanzmas, and have a happy new year.
Twitter: twitter.com/StormyAdlerPoG
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Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you credit me as the creator of the series.
The artwork was made at a resolution of 3996×2160 (aspect ratio 1.85:1).
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