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gender-buddies · 2 years

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Phase Three Artist Commentary

Yep, here we go again! Phase Three is finished and now I want to talk about the inspirations and thoughts on all the Buddies released for this phase. Check it out under the cut!

Girl and Boy: Yes, I am going to put these two together because they work as a pair and are inspired by the same things. I avoided designing these for the longest time because I needed something that would be unique, make sense color-wise, and NOT just be a pink girl critter and a blue boy critter. I wanted no assumptions, nobody who would take a look and say "Yep, that's a girl alright." So I started looking at animals that have the ability to change sex, because that is a common narrative for boys and girls - a lot of them are assigned those genders at birth but then discover they were something else. The entire Gastropod class is composed of snails, slugs, nudibranchs, and others that can change sex. I decided I liked the idea of having a sea hare or sea bunny as the basis, with some nudibranch-like details. Sort of a mix of animals. While they are related to snails, and Nonbinary was a snail, I made them anything but Water types because they needed to be different. I didn't incorporate anything that could be conveyed as "masculine" or "feminine" and I specifically avoided using too much blue and pink. I think a small cool-colored Buddy and a larger warm-colored Buddy was a good way to balance the two. I'm proud of these ones!

Fluidflux: I try not to make too many fluid identities into Water types or any kind of aquatic animal, but I really liked the idea of an eel that was both flowy and spiky. The face is probably my favorite part. The pattern flows and fluctuates between spots and stripes much like gender can flow and fluctuate. This design uses inspiration from dragons, ribbon eels, dragon eels, and fire eels - and it's the only common Buddy so far to have two elements!

Trigender: Since Pokemon decided to release a mutli-headed hot pepper plant design, I couldn't convince myself that my three-headed hot pepper Buddy would be a good idea. I wanted to design something that came in three parts, and I liked the idea of three inseparable animals. Capybaras are known for hanging out with other animals and I thought birds would be cute - both water birds, a kingfisher and a duck. Trigender is not the capybara nor either of the birds, but is the entire group together. Normally I would avoid going masc or fem for multigender identities but for this one, I like the feminine look of the capybara.

Autigender: A mud puppy, pretty much! I wanted an animal that felt like it properly represents the autistic experience, and I think a dog fits really well. Having it covered in mud from running around and playing also seems to fit because it shows excitability and hyperactivity, maybe even an unawareness or lack of care about getting dirty. I had a lot of fun showing movement by giving it a dynamic pose and having the mud flying off of it. Also there's totally an error with the highlighting, on the front paw in the foreground.

Genderpunk: I think it's pretty punk for a fox to act like a wolf. I sketched this as a wolf originally and then tried to change it to an animal that normally comes from a hot climate, but is an Ice element. I stuck with the wolf idea until it was time to do the line art, and I made the last-minute decision to make it a fox that happened to act and look like a wolf. Skulls are pretty punk, so I gave it a wolf skull to wear.

Genderflor: The entire group of these genders - Genderfae, Genderfaun, and Genderflor have turned out great so far and this one is no exception. The original idea was some kind of little pixie-like creature based on a bumble bee, but I wanted it to be surprising just like the others. I thought of animals representing nature, like the World Turtle with trees on its back, and I thought a big dinosaur covered in foliage would be cool. A gentle giant is perfect to represent nature.

Nanogender: A Buddy based on an isopod of course. So far, this one was the second-easiest to draw (Agender was the first) and I like how it turned out because of its simplicity. I wanted something small because of the "nano" part of the label, but I also made it an electronic critter based on the same word. It was originally just a sleek little robot with glowing spots and I added the wheels and wind-up key last minute. I wish I'd done more for highlighting though.

Xenine: Originally this would have been a phoenix with star-shaped patterns on it, but I'm going to use the fiery flying animal idea for other Buddies. This one was changed to be based on the Cetus constellation, which looks like a sea monster. I wasn't sure what to do with the fin down its back until I was ready to add color, and thought a starry galaxy would look cool. I kept the Stellar element even though this one would work well as a Cosmic type too, mostly because it's based on a constellation.

Cenrell and Faesari: I'm putting these two together because they go together. I knew right away that one would be Shadow and one would be Light, and then started thinking of how that could be portrayed. Something hiding in the shadows, something protecting the other. The original plan was a clam and a pearl, and then I wanted the pearl to be a frilly little fish to give it a more feminine look. Then I realized that pea crabs are what you would find living in a clamshell, so I decided Faesari would be a pea crab. As for Cenrell, the clam design just didn't look good when I sketched it out. Instead, I went with a pelican, where the mouth was sort of a clamshell in shape. I thought it was really neat to put Faesari in the artwork for Cenrell as a little easter egg. Pea crabs have markings that could look a little bit like a heart if you look at it the right way, so I put a heart on it and made it very cutesy. Both of these Buddies were a good way for me to introduce simple designs at higher levels, instead of making every level 4 Buddy so complex.

Gender Disobedient: This one breaks convention in a number of ways to highlight the disobedient nature of the identity. It's a snake that can fly and it's made up of different animal parts to make it more like a chimera. It also doesn't match the colors of the flag it's based on and instead, I came up with my own colors. It originally was just a big draconic snake with claws and feathered wings, but I had a lot of trouble making the hands look good. I tried paws instead and it came out a lot better! The flames on the head and tail were added just as I was ready to save the final image because it looked more interesting, but the first version would have had a crest of feathers on the head and feathers on the tail tip.

All in all, phase three took a lot of work, but I think it was worth it. The Buddy designs are gradually becoming more details and high-concept, incorporating a lot of themes that better fit the identities now than they did in Phase One. I'm looking forward to posting more of my design ideas in the near future! Phase Four will introduce a new element never seen before.

- 💜

#gb.txt #artist commentary #phase three

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smoov-criminal · 2 years

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intro

mj/maja

black, multigender, bi, and poly

xe/it/she

health stuff

auDHD, OCD, cPTSD

strongly suspected PPMS, fibromyalgia (?), hEDS, POTS, and a bunch of undiagnosed shit

crutch, rollator, and wheelchair user

this'll be mainly cripple punk/disability stuff, but expect queer and poc related content as well

i dont really like doing DNI, but th!nspo/pr0ana blogs, trans-id/radqueers, and truscum/transmeds get an instant block. devotee blogs stop fucking following me that's also an instant block. i also support all good faith queer identities, including 'weird' or 'contradictory' labels. also i dont care about syscourse. just dont be shitty basically

minors can follow, just block the nsfw tag (i post very little of it, and it's always disability related)

common tags are on this post, lmk if u need anything tagged!

main: @mj-theskywitch

cane-you-dig-it -> smoov-criminal

ven and cash are both mjthehooman :3c

server for rare/underrepresented conditions

server for disabled people of color

[icon description: picture of maja in her new apex a rigid frame wheelchair. the chair frame is black, and the pushrims, caster bumpers, and removable frame guards are red. the picture shows the whole chair and maja sitting in it. she's wearing a black crop top with a red kieth haring dancing dog figure, green jeans, and combat boots. shes also wearing red black and white gloves and a battle vest with various pins and patches. shes holding the rims and looking forward with a slight smile. /end ID]

[header description: a picture of the back of mj's vest with four patches, one large back patch with the bottom half visible, and three smaller ones below it. the first large one reads "thank you" in large red text, then "for the venom" under it, in the style of takeout bags. going left to right, the smaller ones read "limp wrist raised fist" "keep abortion legal" and "cripple punk". each patch has red embroidery around it, as does the bottom edge of the vest. /end id]

[userbox description: 1. a dark red userbox with medium-light grey bolded text and border. The image on the left is a black transparent male symbol, a black circle with an arrow pointing to the top right. The text is center-aligned and says “This user believes in transandrophobia”.

2. a userbox with the same formatting and color, this time on the left is a transparent black outline of a derby handle cane at a diagonal tilt with the handle in the top right corner. The text says “Don’t ask me if you’re crippled”. /end ID]

userbox credit: @fageles

#disabled #disability #cpunk #cripple punk #ableism #mobility aids #chronic pain #medical ableism #accessibility #mj.txt #mj.face

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