#I'm also aware that some? zine artists have blogs here so if any of them want to show themselves under this post they're welcome to ^^

[zuzandr]

Are you in tumblr r1999 zine or there's another one?

I didn't know there's a tumblr one until now 😭

I'm in the local reverse 1999 zine organized by @hona-hona

It's hella cool so I'm gonna share the links in case any of you wanna peek at works of other artists: VK and Telegram

It was made by russian-speaking side of r1999 fandom so everything's in russian don't be surprised lmao

[batwynn]

I'm a newish artist on here and even my friends don't share my posts anymore. Idk what to do bc I keep seeing popular blogs like yours ask for signal boosts and no one bothers and my blog is so small? I feel like I'll never get any attention nvm commissions on here and twitter is almost worse for me.

Hi newish artist anon! Firstly, I don’t know what’s up with your friends, but I would hope they supported you and your work? I know what you mean, though, it’s been a rough period for creators of all types on this site, and I have a feeling it won’t get any better. I wish I could bring you back to the days of reblogs, mutuals screaming about stuff together, and lots of traffic to everyone’s accounts, but... time travel, as far as I can see, is not a viable option. :( Here are some links to some basic tips I wrote out before to managing Tumblr a bit, first and foremost: How to Get Your Art Noticed (On Tumblr)How to Manage Bullying (On Tumblr) How to Sell On ETSY (Super basic) More serious talk under the cut: 

The thing is, also, is that I’m not actually a popular blog. I have a largish sum of followers, but at this point I’ve become aware that a thousand of them are probably porn bots, and at least another 7 thousand or so are hacked accounts/abandoned of friends and mutuals that no longer post or use this site at all.(I say this after exploring some of my older follower’s accounts, a lot of the mutual followed accounts, and a lot more old friend accounts from people I haven’t heard from since 2015 or so.)

 SO many people have left, or were forced off this site, and it’s left a pretty big void for a lot creators like myself and others. It means that a lot of us, while once being decently ‘popular’ are now sort of stagnated to this ‘I have a lot of followers but half my friends are gone and a lot of the followers aren’t actual accounts anymore’ kind of place. Which means, with the whole anti-reblogging front going on, you just... go nowhere. Your posts don’t get outside of your bubble, especially when Tumblr does stuff like hides your posts with links from the tag. :/ 

On the other side of things, If you look at accounts like Pangur and Grim you can really see a difference in account activity and follower interaction. You’ll notice there’s a surplus of activity on multiple types of posts, from personal, to cats, to art, etc. (You’ll also notice a lot of negative stuff, which I honestly don’t miss from the time when I had a lot of activity on this blog lol) That kind of blog is what I would consider an actual ‘popular’ blog, especially since the owner does a lot of interactive posts and gets actual interactions with them. The point I’m trying to make with all this, is that there is no one true way to get interaction on this site, and I don’t really think there’s a perfect way to gain it without, honestly, luck. Even two years ago, I would say something like, ‘You may be able to get people’s attention by working hard at focusing on post times, popular trends, networking, working with other artists, joining zines, etc.’ But that just doesn’t work anymore. Hard work does not automatically equal popularity or give you attention and interactions, especially not on this site. 

Things have changed, unfortunately in a very negative way for creators, and we’re all sort of left trying to find a place that works like Tumblr used to. A place we can congregate yet have our personal spaces, while exploring our ‘likes’ and mutual fandoms etc. A place where a little extra work on your content and following trends and posting at good times was all you really needed to get at least some interactions and attention. 

Twitter is also not good at that, and I know a lot of my friends and mutuals are there and we are following one another, but Twitter is just not made for creators. It really just isn’t. It’s fast-paced, it’s styled for short, quippy responses to media and other people, and it’s terrible with image quality never mind the whole bad cropping situation. If you able, by luck and some hard work, to manage a following, even then there is no promise of interaction or commissions. People move on, people ‘like’ and skip to the next post, people ignore donations posts, people scroll past art if they can’t see the whole thing, people are looking at Twitter at midnight after a long day of work and have no energy to look at your kickstarter for your original work, people spend all day looking and talking about politics and are burnt out, etc. etc.  

I know this is... not a cheerful message for anyone, but I wanted to be honest. There isn’t one way to get attention for your work, and there is no promise that doing ‘one simple trick!’ will work for you when it worked for others. Just by asking and wanting to be proactive about this is a great way to get going, though!

That being said, I would love to reblog/retweet your work and never feel bad for asking me for a signal boost. Seriously, I may not be a popular blog but if you need commissions or donations and need a boost, It’s worth a try and I’m absolutely open to sharing your work and posts. 

[howtobeaconartist]

I have an odd question about merching with traditional art vs digital. I'm a trad. artist who colors with marker/watercolor and want to do stickers and acrylic charms using my art. I did a sample of artwork colored digitally and tbh i really don't like it- it doesn't look like my style at all. My question is- do any of yall do your artwork for charms/stickers/etc using trad. artwork? If so, do the tiny variations in color, etc., negatively affect the finished product? (1/2)

”I’m pretty good at getting the colors consistent in PS, but worry that it might not look right when printed. Is there a good way to see how the colors might be affected before dropping tons of $$$ on charms and stuff? Thanks a ton for this blog, btw. It’s easing my anxiety about my first con :p”Nattosoup:  I work mainly in traditional art (watercolor and alcohol marker, often ink), although when I’m designing most of my merch, I prefer to work digitally, just because I can get cleaner color reproduction.  But you can see from my table that I have A LOT of traditional media work up for sale, or reproductions of such work available as books, charms, and mini prints.

SO!  You’re going to have to do some degree of digitization to your work regardless.  You’re going to have to scan it, to clean it up, to design it for the products you’re making.  How much digitization you want to do, and how much it differs from the original, is going to vary product to product.  I recommend you invest in color correction hardware like a Spyder or a ColorHug, so you can calibrate your monitor to accurately reflect color.  I have a post over on my blog about monitor color calibration.

My banners, mini prints, some of my stickers, my comics, and mini comics are all drawn, inked, watercolored, or markered traditionally.  I then scan them and fiddle with them in Photoshop- often just to get rid of unnecessary/unwanted color variation (say, the paper warping when scanning), to add more contrast (since my scanner tends to grey things out), or to bump up the color vibrancy.I print through:Overnight Prints (make SURE you format it in CMYK not RGB with them, they will not check for you)ShutterflyBuildASign (their print resolution is kinda crap, but it works well for banners)And I’ve used Staples skrim printing for the banner below.  I also print at home.Basic tips for making merch with traditional art:1. Scan in CMYK.  Edit in CMYK.  Printers print in CMYK, so the closer you can work within their gamut, the more accurate your work will be.

2.  Many places will send proofs- Createspace, Catprints, and many of the charm manufacturors will send a PDF proof to give you an idea of color accuracy, but you can also request or pay for physical proofs.  This will give you an idea of how it will print, and what you need to do to correct it.

3.  Scan LARGE.  I scan everything at 600 DPI, as I find it works best for large scale things like banners, and allows me to reutilize art.

Even with proofs, there’s a margin of error.  My third printing of 7″ Kara was ALL wrong- CreateSpace switched their printers, and didn’t send me a proof for me to double check, and I wasn’t aware that they’d switched printing services until I’d contacted them about it.   They wouldn’t replace them, wouldn’t refund me, and I had to sell them as is, as I can’t afford to just eat 50 miscolored books. If you’re printing traditional media onto merch, you may need to accept that the finished merch won’t necessarily look like your finished illustration.  You also need to keep in mind that without the original to compare it to, your customers might not care, especially if it still looks good.

4.  Order early!  This way if there’s a mistake or a misprint, you have time to get it straightened out.  Never order from a new supplier or source right before a show- that’s a great way to end up with product you can’t sell, or product you’re not quite comfortable selling.  Give yourself time to make mistakes.

5. Read their submission information CAREFULLY.  Follow their setup instructions carefully.  If you’re uncertain about something, email the company, and if they don’t respond with them, don’t continue to work wtih them.  If you’re concerned with your artwork fidelity, it’s better not to take risks with companies you cannot communicate with.  You’ll end up paying more (customer service always comes at a price), but you’ll also feel more comfortable because the communication will be there.

6.  Places that already do photo printing are generally good at reproducing original artwork.  I haven’t worked with anyone from AliExpress, but I have worked with Artscow and Shutterfly, and any place that does quality photo prints can reproduce traditional artwork faithfully onto objects.  I have bags, waterbottles, vinyl stickers, and more with my watercolor art printed onto it and while the price margins make it unfeasible to offer items like this for sale, I’m quite happy with the print quality, and regularly use these items.

7.  Work with what you’re comfortable with, then figure out how to digitize it for reproduction.  My wooden charms were originally traditionally inked (fude pen in sketchbook) designs, that were scanned and then reinked as vectors to cooperate with Ponoko’s laser cutter.  Most laser cutters prefer vectors, so you may have to get comfortable converting your art over.  I have a tutorial here on how to prep your files for Ponoko.8.  Start out with home manufacture and assembly. I do a fair amount of manufacturing at home.  I print and cut my own stickers, so I can adjust the color based on the printer and print quality.  I print and assemble my own mini comics and zines, so the same goes for those.  My dear friend Kabocha has a post on cutting stickers using a Cricut that you may find helpful if you get into home production.Basically if you followed instructions, you digitized your work properly, at the right resolutino and in the right color profile, and you requested a proof, you should be good!  Also!  If this post was helpful, or if you enjoy this blog, please click through the links on Nattosoup or Kiriska’s names, and check out our art!  You can also check out our about section for links on where you can tip each of us as individuals (HTBACA does not have a joint Kofi, Paypal, or Patreon)

[yeonjuins]

hiii! It’s the goingtouniversitysoonforgfx anon again💀💀

call me june☺️! ngl that’s what I acc go by on my blog so if you ever find it, cool and hi :) (im just anon bc im shy lmao) - honestly i really love that name and it’s my birthday month, (I finish in June too!), also one of the first krnb artists I started listening to back in 2020 is called june and I was absolutely in love w his music, like he was all I had in rotation with gsoul and couple others

i haven’t acc tried using ae yet, your guide gave me a rough idea of where to start, I just haven’t gotten round to it . Truth is I’m so so so soooooo bad w time management and getting stuff done so I couldn’t make any extra passion projects for my portfolio (I ult txt and procrastinate like crazy so put that together with having to prepare for a 6hr exam) 😭

I had this really cool idea for an Ateez zine but all I’ve done is the cover roughly and nothing else - so I just quickly made a few things and compiled school and personal stuff together and sent it off, im really bummed out about the zine because it’s something I would’ve really put my all in and be so proud of but I didn’t wanna rush it and not be proud of it 🥲 if I ever make it I’ll be sure to show you!

On the bright side I made this fairy of shampoo poster that I love and a Polaroid love poster that I made on a whim-that oddly turned out really good that I sent off, but i wanted to animate it which I ended up not doing….. I’ll get round to it eventually…..

I have 2 offers tho! Just not from where I wanna go lmao, I should have the rest by the end of March so fingers crossed..

this could be the weirdest question you’ve ever gotten but like, how do u sort all your gfx stuff..? Like resources wise (colourings, pngs, elements) idk if I’m using the right terms but you get what I’m saying right?

I do have them in folders but most of the time I go on downloading sprees and then I end up leaving everything over the place - I may have just answered my own question but I’m just wondering what works for you or if you know anyone that has anything organised in a specific way where it’s easy to navigate, u know?

SORRY FOR THIS REALLY LONG ASK, I see you’re really swamped with asks already but….yeah. I also saw that you take music recs so I wanted to make a few! (That was the originally whole reason why i was sending an ask but i rambled alot replying to ur last answer to me…)

I have a million and one favourite songs rn, but these are my faves in rotation - lmk if you’ve already heard!

snowy night - billlie

sincerity - WONPIL

super rare - epik high, wonstein and ph-1

again - def, LEON

Cool to see other DVWN Fans and also it’s really cool to see how you’ve kinda created a space to talk about music, krnb and such, I always felt like I was the only one in this music bubble skhsjsj

Anyway, ENJOY :]

(putting under read more cause lengthy response (": )

please please !! never feel bad for having a long ask (": i'm honoured really people want to talk to me hehe <3 secretly typing up my response in class right now because this class is boring LMFAO

hello june !!! i acc have a friend with the same name on here so i'll call you 'june anon' if thats alright hehe (will go back to previous asks and change the tag as well so we can look back if we ever need to <3) and I CANNOT BELIEVE JUNE WAS ONE OF YOUR FIRST KRNB ARTISTS..... if we're talking about the same person- he's also apart of plt records right?? i am absolutely in love with anyone that is aware of plt....

oh my- please i feel like that wasn't even a proper guide ;; ik i already said this but i feel like i should've gave something more structured PAHHAHA hopefully it still helps you in some sort of way ;; and a 6 hour exam wtf that's acc insane imo ):< time management is super hard (<- literally micromanages everything to get stuff done <- horrible at micromanaging <- don't micromanage either, it's horrible for mental health if you don't condone time for it)

omg zines... i absolutely love making zines they're so fun... i think the first zine i made was an isometric house illustration based off of childhood photos of my friends ;0 i think i titled it the 'HOME' project or something but that was one of my first big projects that really pushed me towards wanting to do stuff with design in my fuutre (": i entirely know what you mean by 'wanting to give it your all'... it's really polarizing but as creators you feel the weight on your shoulder to make things good esp if the topic means a lot to you ;; please do show (if you feel comfortable and if you end up making it) !!!!

wHAHHAH edits on the whim are SOOO fun... i made my animal crossing edit / gyugle on a whim and they're truly one of my favourites hehe... i think i said this with humming anon but i feel like anything associated to fos is instnatly god tier... like nothing can go wrong with it ever and that is simply the truth !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND YAYAYAY CONGRATS ON GETTING TWO OFFERS OMG ! that's acc amazing ;0 excuse me for prying but are you perhaps in canada...? it sounds like your school system is the same as mine ;; if you don't feel comfortable with sharing though feel free to ignore !! whatever college/uni you end up going to, i'm 90% sure it's all purely what you make out of the experience (the other 10% comes from me not even . being in university so i can't entirely vouch for this PAHAHAH) i believe in you my love <3

i’m going to answer your gfx organization question in a separate text post !! just in case someone else asks me so i can just redirect it easily ;; (you can find it here!) 

oh my god i wanted to get into billie for so long because i absolutely love their debut song + concept + THEIR ?? CHOEROS ARE SO COOL (lia kim <3 she never misses... <3) snowy night feels so christmasy it’s so cute... omg i acc never listened to wonpil’s solo stuff ;; i used to be obsessed with day6 in like 8th-9th grade but his voice is so angelic and soft ): my spotify acc broke listening to wonpil’s song SO I CAN’T . PAUSE IT NOW . (<- had to force restart my phone PAHAHHAH wonpil your power...) ASDHOIAKLMW AND OMG EPIK HIGH SOOOOO TRUE.... istg the more i answer asks the more anons bring out my krnb/khiphop days... absolutely love epik high’s ‘we’ve done something wonderful’ album... no skips on that album imo but i’m not sure if everyone would like it since it does have some of those ‘old school’ vibes to it (the song is lovely btw ph-1′s part is <3) ouu i feel like i’ve heard of leon before but this song is new to me ;0 it’s so chill wHAAHA it has like..... a hint of dpr vibes to it (<- thinks about dpr live’s jasmine obsessively... i also hate the fact that i use the word ‘vibes’ but idk what else i should say like ‘energy’ sounds equally as........... ‘gen z’ to me ASOHDIMKLWA)

thank you for the song recs my love (”: and thank you for dropping by my inbox hehe like i said all the way above, i don’t mind long asks !! let’s me talk about similar interests and i just think it’s wholesome overall <3 i hope your day has been going lovely as far my angel <3