#anyway consider commissioning my ass or subscribing

[mxwhore]

i spoke too soon

[rosebleue]

I'm pretty broke (don't worry, me and the wife can get groceries and pay our mortgage, but the immigration lawyer was 550 euros and I make minimum wage, so that and basic furniture and her new glasses have really bitten into our savings, BUT we are not in immediate danger and we can afford food and meds!!!)

So I'm turning to the internet to rant a bit and consider more sources of money

I'm 150 viewers short of 1000 subs to monetize my YouTube channel, so I really should make some more videos. I make like... One video a month, but maybe, if you like the sound of my voice, consider subscribing! It's free and you get cute Sailor Moon videos and bad jokes!!!

I could open tarot reading commissions over here or spell commissions on fiverr. I never have made money from esoteric bullshit but it is a skill I've had for years.

My art is not good enough for commissions but maybe I could be hired for doodles of characters in Vampire Knight style or Ayami Kojima-adjacent style.

I'm pretty confident in being able to self-publish my last nano novel on Amazon if I can sit and finish the damn thing.

Problem is, all those dang things require me to be popular on the internet (and in the Spanish speaking internet, no less, do you think I can translate a whole ass novel into English when I fumble everything I post here??) and I've never been good "making a personal brand" or "creating a narrative" or "being a real life fictional character people relate to"

Anyway, ideas and tips welcome lol

[bellybiologist]

On Depicting "Aged Up Characters"

Just some rambling and ranting about something im coming across with work regarding character depiction.

First and foremost, most of my long-time followers probably already know that when it comes to fictional characters, i do not care about needing to age up characters to enjoy them and whatnot, cuz fictional. But also, i 100% understand why people age them up to properly enjoy them.

That said, i need people to at least kinda explain to me what they need to see to consider a character aged up.

This is mostly for patreon work and commissions, cuz this pops up really often???

I don't subscribe to "traditional traits" of what makes a person appear "aged up." Stylistic choices aside, i generally try to make a character look as much like how they are canonically as possible with more realistic proportions, barring me changing traits to something i personally find more attractive (see me making literally every character i like chumby with a tumby). My drawing actually being seen as "oh hey, its THAT character" asap (preferably, on sight) is very important to me.

Real people don't always have the (mis)fortune to get all the traits that people need in order to appear like an "adult" to everyone.

Not everyone gets taller after that last growth spurt they got at 15.

Not everyone gets facial hair, or hell, they decide to stay clean shaven regardless of the level of hairy they achieve.

Not everyone gets broad superman shoulders or huge tits

Not everyone gets a Dorito-faced bad touch senpai chin. (this one drives me up the wall because round face shapes are CUTE and not everyone gets chiseled cheekbones or jawbones at 18, god dammit.)

A lot of these traits are only seen as "adult traits" mostly cuz hollywood really fucked us because they depicted a LOT of teenagers in media using adult actors that are deemed conventionally attractive. So most people's perceptions of what looks like an adult is pretty warped.

IMO, subscribing to traditional traits of being an adult, or simply appearing older, limits what you can do when designing a character, and also comes with othering people who dont get those traits in reality. I, myself, for example, am pretty short compared to most amab people of the race on my mom's side (which is black). And when i shave, people tended to think i was like, 16, even in my mid-20s because my filipino genes kept my face relatively roundish too. (Which is to my advantage being a trans woman, but thats not my point.). Most traits that are taped onto a charatcer to "age them up" dont apply to me when i became an adult. Then this becomes more difficult when you add in stylistic choices in art (see: chibi art)

So where i stand, i dont care for traditional adult traits because most of them are dumb anyway. But, im more than amenable to depicting them for work and art if asked!

When people ask, i follow up to ask them to clarify how they'd want them to appear "older" or "aged up" or "adult" and one of two things happen:

they never explain what would they want to see and magically expect me to read their mind or something

They literally don't know what they're looking for.

Which is problematic to me because, some people dont change at all as they get older. Genetics just be like that; Some of us grow into our final proportions once we hit 15, and das it.

So my choices in this situation are to either take a wild guess at what they want, or just do nothing and leave them the same (the latter often being suitable enough to most situations since my style is semi-realistic enough in terms of proportions, which leads me to think its less them wanting them aged up, and more to cover their own ass in case of implications). I don't like defaulting to "the traditional traits" to make them appear like an adult cuz it may end up not looking like that character after a point. Some of those traits dont even apply when you make them chubby or they gain weight or won't even be noticeable unless you put in something else as a frame of reference. ie. being fat diminishes the chiseled cheeks/chin that a lot of older male characters are depicted with, so to some who follow this rubric, chubby faces make people look younger.

But it also infuriates me because it goes to show that people are often just saying these things in order to adhere to demands of the political climate. Which, of course, is totally valid when you want to avoid Discourse™, but less so when you're not thinking about it critically and go around assuming that everyone reacts to and copes with the concept the same.

Also... it dumps all the brainwork on ME. >:T

I know i'm a badass artist and whatnot, but guesswork is my least fun thing to do to make sure some cartoon character looks suitably adult enough to enjoy guilt-free by one-person-in-particular

Taller? i can do that. Body hair? sure! Definitely. But you gotta give me something to work with. I can't read minds (yet).

So in the end. When you ask for commissions or make patreon nominations, tell me what you want. xD