Kalany
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kalany.bsky.social
Kalany
@kalany.bsky.social
40 followers 13 following 250 posts
A migratory bird. No wait, a plane! No wait—

Mid-40s, American, disabled, tired.
I block for ableism.
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kalany.bsky.social
Did my democracy for the day
A pale-skinned hand putting a ballot into a ballot drop box.
November 4, 2025 at 9:05 PM
kalany.bsky.social
You know what would be a great value-add for a pharmacy? A service where they'll lightly mist your pills with food coloring on each side before bottling them.

I sometimes halve all three of these, and man that would make it so much easier to tell them apart
A pale-skinned hand holding three very similar small white pills in the cup of the palm.
November 4, 2025 at 7:49 PM
kalany.bsky.social
My new doctor put me back on my pain meds

I have adhd
Discord text reads: October 7, 2025 kalany (Yesterday at 3:49 PM) Oh my good fucking lord, I forgot what opiates are like in doses high enough to actually do anything October 8, 2025 kalany (Today at 7:32 AM) Whoops I did too much and then hurt my back so bad I passed out from the pain
October 8, 2025 at 8:43 PM
kalany.bsky.social
An older picture of Kara for #caturday.

#cat #CatsOfBluesky #SkyCats?? That sounds like a 90s cartoon
A fluffy grey kitty lying on her side on dirty beige tiles
July 6, 2025 at 2:05 AM
kalany.bsky.social
They say that the rule is cha if by land, ti if by sea, but my new 茶 came by air … 🤔
A light skinned hand holding a cylindrical package about half again the length of the hand and about the circumference of a large bottle cap. The package is tightly enclosed with large dried leaves tied with more vegetation bits, and is then wrapped with cellophane and a label marking it as 200g of tea from Yunnuan[sic], China. A large cup with half-brewed tea leaves floating in it.
July 1, 2025 at 6:21 AM
kalany.bsky.social
A fluffy grey kitty with bed head is curled up on a small shelf
June 29, 2025 at 8:31 PM
kalany.bsky.social
Here are a few examples from the Met collection—most of these stamps are from collectors, as is most of the writing. In the Chinese antique art market, these don't detract from the value of the work, they enhance it, and adding commentary to a piece of art is something literati do fairly commonly.
This is Met Museum object number 1981.278, 北宋 徽宗 竹禽圖 卷 / Finches and bamboo, by Emperor Huizong (Chinese, 1082–1135; r. 1100–25). It shows painted finches and bamboo, a whole plethora of red artist steals stamped around the edges, and three lines of one of the many colophons. For more, the direct link to the art is https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39936 This is Met Museum object number 1989.363.151, 清　石濤　(朱若極)　山水人物圖　冊頁 / Landscape with solitary figure by Shitao (Zhu Ruoji) (Chinese, 1642–1707). It shows several stamps and added colophons, at least one of which was added in the last few decades of the 20th century. More info on the Met Museum page at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/49171 This is Met Museum object number 1977.78, 唐 韓幹 照夜白圖 卷 / Night-Shining White by Han Gan (Chinese, active ca. 742–756). This has a drawing of a horse, and it is absolutely completely hemmed in by collectors' seals and added text. Link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39901 This is Met Museum object number 1981.276, 北宋　郭熙　樹色平遠圖　卷 / Old Trees, Level Distance by Guo Xi (Chinese, ca. 1000–ca. 1090). This is the left half of the painting, showing a number of collector seals, including an absolutely massive one from one of the Chinese Emperors, who frequently added dozens of stamps, lines of poetry, title pages, and more to the art in their collections.
June 28, 2025 at 9:07 PM
kalany.bsky.social
And then I realize—

I think the best I can do, right now, is stay alive.

It's hard, sometimes. It's _work_. Especially as the services that keep me that way get slowly destroyed.

So if you need a face and a name to put to the people you're saving by making calls, I'm Rhys.
Rhys is sitting in front of an ecru wall and smiling kind of sideways at the camera. They are of indeterminate gender. They are wearing slightly oversized glasses and a grey T-shirt, and a scar is visible above their near eye.
June 3, 2025 at 5:07 PM
kalany.bsky.social
I've been feeling the need to do some visual art this week after spending several months mostly writing and translating. So, more Fat Shizun Agenda art! A quiet snuggle between friends. Friends, yes, definitely just friends, stop snickering Qinghua. #svsss #art #fanart #snuggle #FatShizunAgenda
A line drawing in dried-blood red on a white background of a very intimate (though not at all sexual) snuggle. Luo Binghe, who is a tall muscular cis man, is snuggling Shen Qingqiu, who in this AU is a short fan trans man. Shen Qingqiu is sitting between Binghe's knees and leaning back against his chest; Binghe's arms are around his waist and their hands are touching. Shen Qingqiu has his head tilted back and to the side so they're looking into each other's eyes. Both of them are smiling and wearing lightweight hanfu. Binghe has his demon mark picked out in red, the only real color in the whole thing. Very faint text across the picture reads "WIP" and there are two slightly less faint Chinese style seal stamps as watermarks. In the top left it reads "@kalany@mastodon.art Ao3: kalany"
May 24, 2025 at 7:10 AM
kalany.bsky.social
Continuing with the fat Shizun agenda, here is a kind of quick painting of my AU's Action Shizun mid-leap, about to put the hurt on some demons who got aggressive (not Binghe, who is just off-page to camera left) #svsss #fanart #TransShenYuan #FatShizunAgenda #art
Shen Qingqiu, who in this digital art picture is a short fat trans man, is pictured mid leap off a dais, about to catch a flying sword that is zipping past him. He has a fan in his left hand, open, with blue lightning arcing along its edge, and the sword also has blue lightning arcing along it. His robes are teal and grey, and he is very strongly lit from behind and right of the camera. He is leaping above the camera, and pictured from below. His long black hair sweeps out behind him and his sleeves are flying. The background is a gradient in browns and the style is something between comic book and watercolor.
May 22, 2025 at 8:23 PM
kalany.bsky.social
Today
A half-destroyed bathroom with a little bit of new framing and a new hole in the floor.
April 17, 2025 at 3:09 AM
kalany.bsky.social
This morning, this afternoon
A bathroom with a large tub at the far end. A man is standing on the tub rim with his back to the camera and is in the process of destroying the tile around the tub with a motorized device similar to a miniature jackhammer. There's cords and construction gear all over. The same tub area except now it's been stripped down to the insulation and raw floorboards. There's tools and loose bits of fiberglass and destroyed plumbing lying on the floor.
April 15, 2025 at 11:18 PM
kalany.bsky.social
Writing self-indulgent fanfic in today's America:
White background, plain black text in Palatino font reads: He still keeps half an eye on the pair near one pillar that he's fairly sure he's never seen. It is a fairly full court day, however, and he has many matters to worry about, like the infighting over tolls on the river route out of the highlands. The boat locks there are costly to maintain, and nobody wants to be responsible for paying for it. Ultimately, Binghe plans to take over the boat locks himself and pay for them from tax revenue, but the highlands have traditionally been independent and must be eased into the idea. Moreover, it will be years before the economy is able to sustain the level of taxation needed for all his planned projects. Luo Binghe will not let his people go cold or hungry, no matter how much they also need infrastructure projects.
April 12, 2025 at 12:18 AM
kalany.bsky.social
And where I'm deviating from cleaning up what Google Translate spits out, I'm making only the best decisions
The boatman from Word of Honor episode 2, just after being woken up. The English caption reads "Can't you see this daddy was sleeping?"
March 7, 2025 at 10:09 PM
kalany.bsky.social
I have an SVSSS AU where Shen Yuan is a short fat trans man, and his mushroom body is too. I enjoy drawing him that way, both because the world needs more badass fat trans hotties, and because it's so different from the usual twink cultivator look.
#SVSSS #Art #FanArt
A digital painting. A fat trans man in a teal binder and shorts, nothing else. He's in a tai chi stance with his sword in his right hand held horizontally over his head, his other hand out in a hand seal, and his left knee raised with toe pointed. His fat rolls are spilling over his shorts at his waist. The background is mostly just purplish-brown abstract blotches, getting lighter to the bottom left, but he is casting a shadow. There are two Chinese-style seals on bottom left. Watermarked text on the image reads: @kalany@mastodon.art Ao3: kalany Kalany Ao3 kofi bluesky mastodon.art Patreon
February 28, 2025 at 12:17 AM
kalany.bsky.social
Basic shapes traced off a royalty-free Pexels ref (link in next skeet), trying to practice my hard shading.

#art #MadeInCsp #DigitalArt #PracticeMakesProgress #Portrait #CelShading
Cel-shading style portrait of a young Black Muslim woman in a head scarf, in black and white on a grey ground.
February 22, 2025 at 10:08 PM
kalany.bsky.social
A gif from the opening to Ya Boy Kongming, showing classic Chinese Kongming turning into party boy Kongming
February 20, 2025 at 7:52 PM
kalany.bsky.social
Been doing some practice with fold shapes and rendering. All ref photos are via Pexels
Upper left, a photo of a piece of fabric draped over some sort of large white hard rectangular thing, like a really uncomfortable bed or a bench. Main image, a digital art rendering of the same thing with an emphasis on the shape of the folds, in near black and white (it's actually cream and green, but very close to black and white) Left, a picture of a wet person covered in a length of cloth. Main image, the same thing rendered in near black and white with an emphasis on the shape of the folds. Left, a neck-down picture of a Buddhist monk praying. Main, the same image but rendered digitally in near black and white, with an emphasis on the rendering of the folds. Upper left, a photo of a person wrapped in a long piece of cloth that is billowing slightly in the wind. Main, the same thing rendered in digital in near black and white, with an emphasis on the fold structure.
February 16, 2025 at 11:27 AM
kalany.bsky.social
#poetry #USPol
A poem, in palatino font, black on a white background: "It won't get that bad" ‎‌    ‏   … and if it does? Will you write a memoir about how difficult it was for you to watch us die?    ―kalany, 20 Jan 2025 The poem is in the shape of a handgun.
January 20, 2025 at 9:03 PM
kalany.bsky.social
My headcanon for Xie Lian, based on his donghua appearance. Painted 12 Jan 2024, so almost exactly a year ago. #art #tgcf #mxtx
A portrait of a young-looking Chinese man. He's got warm brown eyes and long brown hair that's put up in a half-bun, tied with a white ribbon. He looks faintly amused.
January 13, 2025 at 9:06 AM
kalany.bsky.social
I use 3D models—CSP has a whole built in 3D engine, Nomad is affordable for iPad, and there's actual free software for a computer. Here's my current WIP with the 3D lighting references, and a 3D lighting render I did for a different piece
A half finished digital painting of people hugging, surrounded by lots of dots of swatches and four different 3D model variations with different lighting A 3D rendered image of a white tangled up cylinder thing, a green nubbly ball, and a white sphere with some pretty severe lighting. Overall the scene is very dark, with some pale white light from behind the camera and some harsh orange light from camera right.
January 13, 2025 at 6:18 AM
kalany.bsky.social
My art tip: even though they seem boring, doing a still life every now and then really does help improve understanding how shapes turn into pictures that our brains understand. You can find reference images on sites like pexels, or set up your own. This is drawn from a photo from pexels:
A digital imitation of an oil painting showing various fruits in a blue bowl, three blue bottles, a grey pan, and a large brown container on a wooden table
January 13, 2025 at 5:01 AM
kalany.bsky.social
Sadly, no. I'm quite sure it's nothing you've done; the auto tagger even identified it as a gift article. It must be something they're doing, maybe because I'm on mobile? Or because I have the "do not sell my info" flag set?
A screenshot from my phone demonstrating the NYT login wall
January 12, 2025 at 11:45 PM
kalany.bsky.social
I don't seem to be able to select the text (at least not easily) so I couldn't copy it to paste here
A screenshot of me composing another reply showing a small hidden text field behind the main text field
January 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM
kalany.bsky.social
Third problem: the send feedback link isn't where it's supposed to be, so I can't report this. FAQ says right hand side of the screen, but there's just a create post button there.

I could send an email, but I don't reliably check my email and this is something their FAQ really should not lie about
A screenshot of the bsky faq reading How can I submit feedback? On the mobile app, open the left side menu and click “Feedback.” On the web app, there is a link to “Send feedback” on the right side of the screen. You can also email support@bsky.app with support requests. Please do not use this email to request an invite. Instead, sign up for the waitlist here. A screenshot of my dashboard where there is no such link, with the words "right hand side … where?" written in red.
November 28, 2024 at 1:29 AM