mulberrypossum-blog

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Okay... I definitely need to explain this one...

So, in my Pokemon games, I like to do a lot of shiny hunting, and I’ve assembled a nice little collection of shiny Pokemon and shiny hunters.

One of those hunters is my Clefable, Cassanova. I use him and his ability, Cute Charm, when I specifically want a female shiny, when a particular Pokemon has a low female to male percentage to even the odds, or if a species only evolves if female (like Snorunt into Froslass, or Salandit into Salazzle, ect), or if there’s just a Pokemon I would personally prefer to be female. Funny thing is, this only works like half of the time for me, even with Cute Charm’s 2/3 gender odds, whenever I hunt with him, the gender ratio of Pokemon I come across is always closer to 50/50. I make a joke in passing to my mom that it meant he was bisexual, and it stuck and I knew I had to draw it. 

So here he is, Cassanova, my bisexual Clefable!

Now that I did this, I kinda want to do this with other Pokemon I have.

Happy Pride Month Everyone!

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I stupidly didn’t answer these questions last year... so I thought I needed to.

🌈 Asexual Female

🌹 Just sitting at home, wrapped in a soft blanket, eating a home-cooked meal while binge watching a good TV/Movie Series or even riffing on a bad series

💘 Honesty, loyalty, good sense of humor, open mindedness

💋 It’s a weird melting pot for me. I like the look of facial hair, mostly Thor beards. Also muscles, doesn’t matter who they’re on, male, female, non binary, whatever, I like ‘em. But also femininity and cute things? I know, it’s weird, I find a lot of things attractive, but I don’t want to sleep with any of them

🐻 The okapi. It, like the platypus, was probably made from a bunch of spare parts. Oh, and cats. I will wanna cuddle literally any type cat you put in front of me. Those big ferocious lions that looks like they’ll wanna rip my throat out? They’re just giant kittens that just need pets

�� I may have to do a whole ‘testimonial’ about this, but I’ll give the abridged version.

 A little over a year back, things just ‘clicked’. Somehow, me and some friends before a class got into a conversation about sex, previous relationships, ect. During the talk, one of my friends mentioned he’d never had a crush on anyone before, and someone else tried to say that meant he was asexual. I chimed in and said there was a difference between romantic and sexual attraction, that there’s a difference between looking at someone and thinking ‘I want be romantic with them’ and ‘I want to fuck them’, and how they weren’t a package deal and some experience one without the other. I just remember kinda zoning out and thinking, ‘Crap that’s me...’ 

I’ve had plenty of crushes before but NEVER wanted to sleep with any of them. I chocked it up to being raised religious and taught to save myself til marriage. Even during a celibacy lecture for a high school class, wherein a student used a sandwich as an allegory for virginity, passed it around, told everyone to take a piece then held up the decimated sandwich afterwards and asked who wanted it to demonstrate that you’d be more desirable if ‘no people ate your sandwich before’, I still remember thinking ‘I don’t want that sandwich, that’s YOUR sandwich.’

That night I sat down and had to do a little soul searching. Looking back on some key events in my life, things started to make sense. I came to the conclusion that I was Asexual, and suddenly, I kid you not, something ‘clicked’ in my brain. I felt a ‘click’, like a drop of water falling into a pool and making it ripple. It just felt right.

💌 Any character development in anything ever. The Zuko and Iroh hug in the Avatar Finale gets me every time I watch it, and so does Barney’s proposal to Robin in How I Met Your Mother. Anyone singing an emotional song and the singer’s voice cracks, and you can just tell they’re channeling all their emotions into their performance. 

🎤 Any Broadway song between a gay couple. A few I really like are “The Best Worst Mistake” from If/Then and “Take Me Or Leave Me” from Rent. Also, “I’ll Cover You”/”Reprise”... Nuff said

🍀 Meeting new people who are LGBT that just... get me. I don’t need to explain my sexuality/reasoning to them because they just... get it. I don’t need to defend myself when people say ‘Oh you’re just saving yourself for marriage,’ or ‘well you’ve never really been in a point in your life where that’s been a priority’, because they just understand me. Being able to joke around my friends about my sexuality feels so relieving because I could never bring myself to do that around my family.

🌠 Especially for religious LGBT youth, people will tell you that you’re sinning. The only ‘sin’ in it is not being truthful to God and yourself. It’s okay to explore until you find yourself. When I was in early high school, I thought I was a lesbian, but didn’t allow myself to explore that side of myself because I thought I was sinning. Then recently, I discovered that I was Ace, and yet people still I’m just being a ‘good, Christian girl’ by ‘saving myself for marriage’, yet when I say I’m not interested in it at all, they get all confused like ‘well when you get married...’. Eh, maybe, maybe not... I may even be bi or pan romantic, and if I was any good at flirting I’d probably try to find out which. I’m not scared of calling down God’s wrath anymore cause... well, the verse that comes to my mind is “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). So even if it is sin (though there’s plenty of arguments supported by Biblical evidence to say it ISN’T) it shouldn’t mater because the love felt within the community overrules it. 

So, yeah. TL:DR, if you’re religious and LGBT, like I am, just be honest with yourself and God and you’ll be fine. You do you and if anyone says otherwise, then they’re probably the ones with the problem.

☁️ Hopefully, among other things, I’ll be out of college (finally) with two/three degrees finished (long story), have something published, have a steady income, and be in a better place mentally and physically

I’m seriously thinking about posting a whole testimonial about my ‘coming out to myself’ and my journey to discover my sexuality. I do plan on uploading some more LGBT art (considering I can find the inspiration for it). Until then, Happy Pride month everyone!

pride month ask game

🌈 - what’s your orientation and gender? 🌹- what would be your ideal date? 💘 - what personality traits are attractive to you? 💋 - what do you find physically attractive? 🐻 - what is your favourite animal? 💭 - when did you realise you were lgbt? 💌 - what makes your heart melt? 🎤 - do you have a favourite lgbt song? 🍀 - what’s your fav thing abt being lgbt? 🌠 - advice for young lgbt people? ☁️ - where do you see yourself in 5 years?

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Here we go, hopefully this isn’t just a one and done deal...

The first of my completed Song Lyric Challenge pieces. THERE ARE MORE TO COME!

...hopefully...

Yikes, I drew all these a YEAR ago... and I’m just NOW getting around to finishing them up? ...Ugh, life’s like that sometimes...

Inspired by: Be Wherever You Are from Steven Universe

Watch me draw this!!! 

Original sketch HERE!

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Mulberry’s Year in Review 2018

Welp... time for the one consistent thing going for me on this blog; my end of the year review. Each year, I look back on the previous year to see how my resolutions held up.

SPOILER ALERT! Literally every one of my resolutions from last year fell through. Like LITERALLY every one of them...

Let’s just get this over with. 2018 was not a good year for me. I mean, some things in it were good... I think? I donno, this whole year has been one big funk for me. I started drawing and posting more... after hitting a huge bit of burnout that multiple projects I wanted to work on were put on hold or even abandoned. I feel like I’m in a better place emotionally and mentally.. after having a full emotional shut down so massive it effected literally every aspect of my life; my school, my art, my friendships, my relationship, everything. I’m not in an unhappy relationship anymore... I think. Right when I was thinking he wasn’t gonna change and things just weren’t gonna work between us the communication just... stopped... School wise, I’ve only got a semester left... cause I can only afford one more semester financially.  I’ve written a lot and am closer than ever to finishing something for publication... but the thing I’m close to finishing ISN’T the thing I’ve been writing a lot of so... I’m really no closer to publishing anything. So yeah, a lot of ups and downs... mostly downs.

Was there anything good that happened this year?

Actually, yeah. 

This was the year I discovered my sexuality, and... I don’t know how to describe it but, once I accepted it, it felt as if something just clicked into place. Like finding the one spot where the one stubborn piece of a puzzle fits. It doesn’t complete the picture, but it does make it just a little more clear. I still need to come out to my friends and family, but somehow that doesn’t seem as scary as it did at the start of the year.

Despite my emotional shut down and burnout this year, I feel like my art has improved. I’ve started doing more ambitious pieces and filming speed draws, and I’ve probably posted more in this year than I’ve posted my whole life on this site.

I have started eating healthier after finding a bunch of recipes I wanted to try out. I still need to work out more but my anxiety prevents me from doing so simply because every time I go to a gym, I just feel everyone else’s eyes just staring at me, judging me and my actions. But I figured a good work around and should be able to get into a good habit of going every day, or at least a couple times a week.

I’ve got a good strategy to finish some writing, so hopefully I’ll get something done this year.

I don’t know if I actually want to formally make any resolutions because, knowing my track record, I’ll just jinx myself and accomplish nothing in the coming year.

I sincerely hope 2019 is much better for me than 2018 was. No, not just me. I hope 2019 is better for everybody.

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Some of my followers may recognize this from my 50 Day Drawing Challenge from earlier this year. I want to do this for all my favorite entries, along with filming speed draws to upload along with them. And while this wasn’t one of the ‘finalists’, I didn’t want to start with one of them because...

Whenever I start filming my screen when drawing, my anxiety kicks in BIG TIME, and even though I know full well I can edit the footage later, I tend to freeze up and become really self conscious of every little mistake I make. So, I decided to do a ‘test’ image, sort of to prepare myself for the speed draws. It got me to relax and just enjoy the art process. My anxiety didn’t bother me as much because, well, the little mistakes didn’t matter because this wasn’t one of my finalists.

I actually wasn’t gonna post this one originally, but I kinda liked how it turned out so I thought ‘screw it, Imma post it...’

I DID learn a lot while making this. Stuff that should be very useful for the actual finalists.

I’m just happy I got this done in time for the New Year.

Actually, I’m not sure it’s done... I still feel I need to add some... stuff... to it. Not sure what, just stuff... Maybe some of the lyrics like I did for the original sketch? Should I add that? Tell me what you guys think...

Prepare for more art come the new year. I’m not gonna say how often I hope to be able to do this because knowing me, I’ll jinx myself and post nothing til July or whenever...

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Yet another character, this time Marina.

She was part of the main group, and part of the Easter sect. 

I’m not sure what her point was in the original, other than being the romantic interest to one of the main romantic interests (like the one who gets friend-zoned?)

Also, don’t ask me what’s with the scar on her face. I have NO idea what 17 year old me was going with that...

Fun Facts!

As part of the Easter sect, Marina is technically an Easter Bunny. And in a very early draft, her ‘day job’ was a Playboy Bunny *GET IT?!*

I came down with writer’s block and put the series on the back burner before her introduction so she never got any development or character. YAY!

So, I knew I wanted her to be the ‘sexy’ character and... let’s just say I’m not proud of how I drew women in the past. Yikes, I mean what’s with those boob proportions? How does she stand up? How has her back not snapped in half?

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And now for Vlad.

Originally, a Grim Reaper but has since also been connected to Dia de los Muertos.

FUN FACTS:

Honestly, Vlad was only created and added to the group as the guy Stephanie DOESN’T end up with. 

I’m actually not that unhappy with the original. It actually looks like something I would draw now.

Since his role has changed to correlate with the Day of the Dead, Vlad might get a revamp in his design and name to better suit him.

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Now for Guy, one of my more favorite characters to write in the original.

Ugh... THIS drawing... I didn’t even FINISH it, it sucked so bad... I didn’t even want to post this one but... he’s too much of an important character to leave out.

Guy is also a Claus, specifically the one in charge of Australia, which is the reason why he uses boomerangs and a whip as weapons (is that too much of a stereotype?) 

Story wise, he was a key character in the inciting incident that takes place years before the events of the book and he acts as Stephanie’s mentor, teaching her the in and outs of how to be a proper Claus. 

FUN FACTS:

I did a lot of reading up on common Australian phrases for him to say in casual conversation. Even so, I still worry that someone would call it out as being ‘stereotypical’ and offensive. And unfortunately I don’t have any Australian friends to consult with his vocabulary nor do I have the time or money to visit Australia myself to learn from people who actually live there.

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Now for one of the more major characters, Jac.

Part of the ‘Frost Unit’, as in Jack Frost, and a member of the ‘Yule Lads’, a group of teenage tricksters based off the group from Icelandic folklore of the same name.

Okay, confession time...

I had included to include a Jack Frost type character in this series from the get go, cause I think he goes hand in hand with other Christmas/Winter icons like Santa, Rudolph, Frosty etc. 

BUT...

This character was conceived sometime in 2012 and just might’ve been ever so slightly influenced by a certain animated movie by a certain company that isn’t Disney or Pixar featuring various characters from folklore including a very similar character that may or may not have been voiced by Chris Pine... *ahem*

Now, I didn’t necessary copy anything per say, Jac as a character was already implemented but I may or may not have had him adopt some character traits from the character that I’m not officially disclosing was voiced by Chris Pine...

This was however a common thing for me to do with my early writing (and still kinda is) to take inspiration from other media. When I was younger, this was much closer to almost being plagiarism, like I would outright steal events from movies and tv shows I loved and had the exact same things happen to my own characters. Sometimes, it would even happen in the exact same locations and sometimes I wouldn’t even change character names! I’m not proud re-reading earlier writings of mine and immediately being able to tell which specific movie/tv show I was obsessed with while writing it. Maybe I’ll post a bit of my older writing so you can see what I mean. (But be warned, there is SO MUCH CRINGE!)

Now, I usually implement TROPES I enjoy, rather than steal exact events. Or I’ll start thinking about where I think a movie/TV series is going and if it doesn’t go the way I think, I still like my idea and decide to use it for something of my own. Or some scene in some movie will get me to feel something, and it’ll make me want to write something similar to get the same emotional reaction out of myself AND my readers.

ANYWAY, the character has been revamped since then and while he still is a trickster, he’s his own character now, based more on the original character and not the specific version I’m not disclosing was voiced by Chris Pine... *cough, cough*

FUN FACTS!

I guess all these were drawn closer to 2012 or 2013 considering the origins of this characters *ahem* ‘inspiration...

He has a pet mouse for some reason. It might have something to do with the original story of Jack Frost, but it’s been long enough that I forgot. I forgot even when originally writing his scenes. Seriously, there is NO mention of the mouse in ANYTHING I wrote originally...

I REALLY wish I could animate, cause the music video I’ve got for a rock cover version of Let it Go in my mid staring this guy looks AWESOME!

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Next is Shani, *technically* on of ‘Santa’s Elves’.

I don’t think she was ever one that made toys, I think she was an agent who would go out in the field for... field missions, I donno. What was I even doing with half these subplots?

I can’t remember exactly which Zodiac sign she was given, but I DID draw the constellation on her staff so if you can guess it, you get a cookie!

FUN FACTS!

Both Shani and Stephanie, along with their friendship, was based on me and my best friend. I injected both with some of our more common mannerisms and their bond is meant to be very similar to our friendship. Many lines they share cone straight from our note passing conversations we often had every class.

I remember giving her a bunch of ‘Christmas-y’ weapons, including a tinsel whip and throwing stars made of holly.

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So, I didn’t just find the old ones...

I found the recent redraws.

So, I decided I might as well do ‘em this way!

First character up to bat is Stephanie, the main character of the Secret Santa Society series (man that’s a lot of S’s...). She’s a *cough* totally regular *cough* teenaged girl who discovers that ‘the man Santa Claus’ doesn’t exist and learns she’s the ‘heir’ of a Claus agent that recently disappeared and much fill his shoes until he is found. 

While I don’t exactly remember exactly where the story was going, I do remember a few key points.

There was a main group of heroes that represented various holidays and other urban legends, from Christmas to Easter to Hanukkah to even Day of the Dead and beyond. I remember I had at least 13 ‘holiday factions’ represented on some sort of council. Each major character came from one factions and each was given a staff that corresponded to the Zodiac in some way, with one, being Stephanie’s, being the odd one out as the ‘leader’. Kinda like a ‘one ring to rule them all’ situation. They had to bring them all together to stop the main villain who was plotting something evil I’m sure, I don’t think I had gotten that far yet.

Also, time travel was a thing... don’t quite sure know why i decided to go that route but.... it’s a thing. It was like the villains are thwarted and decide to go back in time and kill Stephanie before she ever gets powerful enough to defeat them. And it worked kinda on Harry Potter time travel logic rather than Back to the Future logic, ya know? I donno, I get a headache every time i even try to explain time travel.

FUN FACTS!

I’m not 100% sure on the dates here. I know I first started writing this thing in high school, which would’ve been around 2010 to 2012. The later I found in my 2016 sketchbook BUT it was among a bunch of sketches I KNOW I drew last fall semester so 2017 is a pretty safe estimate for all of these.

Stephanie was named by one of my high school friends. I didn’t know what to name her so I asked him to give me a random girl name and he immediately blurted out ‘Stephanie’ and I liked it so much it stuck.

Stephanie is the character featured in my ‘Those Voices’ piece from my song lyrics drawing challenge earlier this year.

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Secret Santas

It’s no secret to anyone that I get writer’s block very easily. Once the creative juices run dry for a certain book or idea, it’s banished to the back burner for months or even years at a time before I ever get the inspiration or motivation to revisit it. I’ve lost countless stories this way, though a few have been lucky enough to be resurrected in recent years.

But there’s one story that never seemed to dry up. Despite the creative writer’s block for it lasting upwards of five years or more, I’ve never fully abandoned it. I revisit it every year around December to see if I can fully ignite it and get it going again. Maybe the reason is that it’s a story that has its roots deep in my childhood and holds a special place in my heart.

But first, some backstory...

Back when I was a child, I was a firm believer in Santa Claus and I would watch and love any movie that had him in it. When I was old enough for my parents to tell me the truth, I decided to try and figure out how I would keep the magic alive for my own kids when I became a parent.

One of the key arguments against ‘Santa Claus doesn’t exist’ is ‘How is one man able to get around the whole world in a single night?’ Even as a child, I just assumed that since the earth revolved around the sun and when one side was day and the other was night, he could just ‘follow the nighttime’ around the globe, giving him a full 24 hours of nighttime to make all his stops.

I’m not sure how it started, but I began to research various Christmas and other Holiday traditions from around the globe and eventually the inspiration struck. I asked myself. ‘What if all these Christmas icons were all working together to pull this off?’ and thus a single phrase was burned into my mind. A phrase that would become the centerpiece of this story.

The Secret Santa Society; ‘The man Santa Claus... doesn’t exist.’

He is but a collection of these individuals dedicated to protect the hope and faith of children, so that they will go on to make a better future.

I only bring all this up because I found multiple sketches of each of the characters in old sketchbooks and figured I might as well post ‘em for Christmas. So stay tuned for that.

Maybe this year will be the year I’ll go back and start updating the story and writing.

...Or maybe it’ll remain on the back burner for now... since I’ve got like no less than FIVE other stories fighting each other for the creative spotlight, and not to mention this Christmas season for me has been especially hectic.

Seriously, as a kid, Christmas was magical. You wake up in the morning and find all sorts of presents under the tree. Your stocking is stuffed, the cookies are gone, Christmas music is playing in the background, the fireplace is emitting a calming glow (or TV if you’re like me and your house didn’t have a fireplace), Santa DEFINITELY exists and everything is magical.

But then you’re an adult and now YOU’RE Santa! Everything is stressful, gifts are expensive, you eat the cookies even though you probably shouldn’t because of your blood sugar, you’re sick of the Christmas music cause it’s been playing non stop since Halloween, your Aunt is still talking down to you in a patronizing tone and treating you like a stupid little kid even though you’re 24, you’ve got a headache and the smoke from the fireplace makes your eyes burn.

FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA....

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So... I made a thing...

For my mermaid series, I decided to pair these two together and...

Well, so far their relationship is reminding me of Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship from Steven Universe

So... I made the thing...

I kinda love it?

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...does this count?

Kinda...

I mean it IS a song, but I didn’t base it on the song, I based it on the ‘Draw the Squad’ prompt featuring the song.

Eh, screw it, still posting it.

WORK!

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And now for some song doodles from the mermaid series that I’m not writing yet!!!

Fewer songs cause these were doodled very early after I decided to make this a series. Songs featured are:

Go the Distance from Hercules, Come Little Children from Hocus Pocus

Open Up Your Eyes from My Little Pony, True Colors by Cyndi Lauper

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Another page of song doodles!

Still related to my graphic novel series, THIS time we have:

Unleash the Magic from My Little Pony, Cold by Jeff Willaims

I Hate You from If/Then

In My World (English Cover) by NateWantsToBattle, My Lullaby from The Lion King 2

Maybe I’ll create a spotify playlist of all my story themes and make a post explaining all of ‘em. I donno, I’ll get around to it...

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So... I found the precursor to my 365 50 Day Song Drawing Challenge.

I got a new sketchbook and began putting my music on shuffle and doodling some of the themes that came up. I actually drew a few pages of these, and if my memory’s correct a few on these pages made it into the final challenge.

All these songs relate to my graphic novel series.

From top left to bottom right we have:

Fade Away by Mando Pony, Lullaby for a Stormy Night by Vienna Teng

Unexpected Song from Song and Dance, I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons

Looking Through Your Eyes from Quest for Camelot, Let Me Try by NateWantsToBattle

Maybe if a future post I’ll explain the reasonings behind each of the themes, but some are kinda spoilery so...