#but I dont think the sketch for this one specifically ever got posted

[b4kuch1n]

​​​​            saw you.

[xamaxenta]

HI I AM BACK! I noticed the first time but after seeing your tag about old art it's made me curious if it's an overall style change or a stylistic choice (also please don't take this negatively I am simply wondering with open arms.)

In some of the art, you draw Sabo's hair really fluffy and wavy, and then in others it's drawn more rigid and pointy, while still trying to look curly? More pointy than the other, I mean.

I went back to look at the sketch you posted earlier and noticed that same effect on Sabo's hair but even more pronounced, to the point where at first glance I would have assumed it was Ace and not Sabo. But you also have a distinct way of doing Ace's hair that is not like that (like Sabo's) so it's left me really curious if drawing Sabo like that is meant as a way to make them more similar (at least more than the fluffy hair was?) Or if it's the result of an art style that's changed over time.

Or! If you don't feel like answering those individually then I would love if you'd give this one a shot when you have time: What is your art process like when drawing Sabo's hair and how does (if it does!) it differ from anyone else you draw?

I think it really depends on the overall mood Im looking for?

Now that youve mentioned it I noticed I have three very separate ways of drawing Marco Sabo and Ace and they all emerge depending on either my mood, what the au happens to be or if there’s a specific vibe im wanting

Ofc alot of the sketches i just posted in that complilation are from like march 2023-march 2024 so it could also absolutely be a style change which is normal and im just along for the ride

Heres some examples idk if they help but its to showcase that i honestly dont draw any of them the same way ever 😂

Bonus marco ace at the end bc Ace has so many forms in my hands

ALSO Sabo and Ace has excruciatingly similar hairstyles especially after Ace gets redesigned for marineford/wano yes Sabos hair has obvious waves but the parting the length augh oda why

Anyway the simplest answer is probably stylistic choice i really love fluffy hair, i cant help but give Ace fluff and i cant help but give Sabo fluff and well marcos got his own thang yknow?

[wrongchose]

I was going to make a post writing ALL the plot that inspired these sketches but it got too long for a little post IM CRYING KANDJ so instead have a little context for every single one (*・ω・)ﾉ

All in the same story Post-Apocalyptic scenario under cut!!

Some Julian design sketches, i changed little about his appearence as i think he would not need to, he knows how to hide very well from the rampaging monsters and hes kinda inmune to them anyways. Finds Randy unconscious and takes him as his talking companion (even if he doesn't talk) 'cause being alone in the apocalypse can't do you very good, can it?. He is actually admiting to know his secret for a while so he wakes up (he doesn't).

A concept i dreamed of; when the Ninja needs it, the suit will protect its user so basically it helps him when hes to tired to fight, (doesn't matter if hes not conscious). It is also capable to show the Ninja see content from the Nomicon without directly accesing to it. The appearence of the suit is directly linked to the state of the Ninja, it resembles bandages as a consecuence of the injuries and mental burden the he currently has. with them being the most simple form of the suit (only for healing, not fighting). Randy is not 100 conscious and cannot take the mask off until he completely heals. Gosh i love sketching edgy scenarios.

MORE peopleee, this time Theresa and Howard (i can't draw any of them ugghhh), Neither of them even have an idea of whats going on, so they team up to find their friends (Debbie and Randy specifically) and at the same time figure out a solution to this crisis, or at least thats what Theresa thinks, in reality Howard is trying desperately not to break a promise he made to Randy "help everyone in case the worst happens" (dude just wants to help). They get to know each other better and since Randy is missing Howard just likes to assume hes Ninja-ing, to not think of "the worst case scenario". Eventually they save Debbie later and find out what happened to Randy and his new "thing".

Edit: I UPLOADED THE UGLIEST PHOTOS EVER I EDITED THEM A BIT AJVDBA

Crutial points of this story but i dont know how to write for my dear life, i could make a mini comic but i dont want to know anything about thAT mmmm ლ(¯ロ¯"ლ)

[ganondoodle]

I just wanna say firstly that i adore your artwork and takes6on Zelda in general! Secondly, much as I wish you never had to deal with the frustrations of creating (especially when you tack on the stress of being on any kind of social platform), I'm glad you talk about your struggle. I've heard people talk about art block every day since I learned what Art was, but nobody ever mentioned "painting oneself into a corner". It's such an apt description that is so infuriatingly relatable that I had to stop eating to thank you for putting it into words. I really appreciate that you're willing to talk about your setbacks in a place like Tumblr, and still share your arts and thoughts. All the best from US of hellscape A, i hope you're doing well.

Thank you!

i used to call it artblock as well, its the most normalized term i guess; i randomly started calling it painting myself into a corner when i got stuck or frustrated on a painting bc welll, it sure feels like it, you painted the walls all around you and dont know how to get out now

it usually happens when i stop having fun and just draw what i want and instead keep subconsciously forcing myself into arbitrary rules; in my case its usually trying to be too perfect, i try to adhere to the sketch, i try to make every block of color have a perfectly clean edge, separate the drawing into way too many layers and am afraid to delete or erase anything, i tense up my whole body as frustration builds bc of impatience as this method of painting does not work for me at all and in the end lose motivation on it all and my nerves are stretched thin (i work best when i think as little as possible, just kinda loosely letting my hand do what it wants on few layers and no specific plan, after losing that its hard to get it back)

having those low moments with your art is normal as your skill grows, but even knowing so, and having gone through it countless times, it never stops making you feel like shit, and its especially frustrating when it happens when you just got enough time to work on stuff or have alot of ideas but you cant get it to work

(and funnily enough it also tends to happen after another work of mine got more attention than i thought .. even worse when it was just a sketch bc now i got the pressure on me to actually finish it and the fear of it doing worse once done looms over the whole thing- which doesnt mean i dont want people to interact with my wips, bc that also has an extremely demotivating factor to it bc it makes me think no one cares or it sucks and doesnt deserve the time i would need to spend on finishing it; also .. alot of my wips stay wips forever, which is fine, but like .. you cant always expect a finished tm version to happen)

i do find it a little funny you praise me for talking openly about it bc i am notoriously unable to shut up ever and only recently got better at NOT talking as much about it when i feel as shitty as this bc it doesnt really help anyone and gets annoying really fast xD (im also notoriously unable to not post absolutely everything bc i got no one to show it to and otherwise it will just collect dust on my harddrive so i might as well throw it out there no matter how much i might hate it, someone else might still enjoy it anyway)

and greetings back from the -not really much less of a hellscape- that is germany o/

[empyreansentinel]

1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 13 for borderlands

1.OTP? not taking the easy answer with our beloved old man yaoi and saying that i think conceptually moxxi and mordecai are pretty heartbreaking. not as a permanent they live happily ever after deal, but still. TPS era nisha and aurelia are also hilarious to think about. 2.OT3? moxxi/lilith/tannis. i am not immune to bittersweet milf yuri. i also cannot think of another ot3 off the top of my head that doesnt make me want to explode.

3.NoTP?

looks at the camera. yknow. 4.Is there a popular pairing you don't necessarily dislike but aren't too invested in?

im at risk of being shot for this for being an angel poster but. gaigel. i dont have anything against it though! ill probably draw or write something for it eventually. 9.Write a recommendation of someone else's fic you enjoyed!

im going to be honest, the only borderlands fic ive read in the past few years have been yours. i WILL take the opportunity to talk up your writing however because i always do. specifically your delirium has been in my head recently ive been putting off drawing something for it. your monty is so interesting.

there was also another fic thatd id recommend if i could but it got deleted way back. nisha, timothy, angel, rhys and vaughn got arrested by the crimson raiders. timothy got executed at the end iirc. it was a small one but i still remember it very distinctly because of how nisha was written in it. 13.What's a character or ship you haven't written/drawn yet but would like to some day? hm! for characters probably sasha and fiona! ive had a fiona sketch saved up but posting her without her baby sister feels wrong they should not be separated. for ships, i havent actually drawn nisha and aurelia yet so. perhaps soon.

[will1]

dude your art is so good, do you have any advice for how to improve as an artist who hasn't been very consistent ? I'd love to know what resources you use for studies,how you lay out sketch pages,what you choose to study,any websites you use for art,etc? No pressure ofc! You don't even have to post this, just know you're one of my biggest art inspo blogs 😊

gahhh aehehahe i really appreciate this ^_^ really kind words :D, anyway my one advice is get incredibnly obssesed with a ccharacter and draw them over and over for 5 years. jk.. i hsve other advice 2 :grin: i think, personally what helped me grow was really having other artists evaluate my art and really taking constructive criticism to heart and working on whatever issues i have consistently in my art whether its anatomy or coloring or rendering. i think it is great 2 have other artist friends who can help you and eachother imrpove! i think also pushing yourself to draw things your uncomfortable with like strange angles and different features and really just working on understanding the human form helped me draw more consistently, for me im now at the stage where i am experimenting with my style but before that i was focused on really getting the basics, i think now that i understand like, figure drawing and such i have been able to focus on getting a consistent art style if thats what you mean? but again ive done alot of figure drawings and loose poses. i remember watching this video a couple years ago that helped me get on the track 2 studying figures specifically !! i do not know if it will be of service to you but here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGhYfLQWbp0 , also ive done some studies of figure drawings from other really good artists i was looking at this one book ill try to see if i can remember later. but yea i study from life and other artists, when it comes to painting i find alot of inspiration from stuff i find on pinterest and also other artists on tumblr lol gahh i have been writing alot my bad, but yea i usually google references for poses i dont really use any like, artist reference websites even though i should lol. but yea overall i have done like soo many gesture drawings, and when i frst got into tf2 i studied the comics artstyle alot which i think helped alot with my style and understanding all the muscles in the face you know, also for sketch pages i literally just start a drawing of something and draw around the empty space around it lol, i do not really plan them ever, in like physical sketchbooks i try to fill in the space between all my other sketches so all my drawings kind of meld into eachother cause i think it looks neat, anyway sorry 4 the essay and i hope any of this helps!! '^_^ if u have any more questions feel free 2 ask

[squeakadeeks]

For the weirdly specific art asks, 4, 5, 13?

4. Fav character/subject that’s a bitch to draw

PACIFIC

I love him and hes one of my oldest OCs but oh my god. between his hair, markings, and wraps hes such a pain to draw, let alone consistently

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

oh man, digital art wise i'd say i post 70%, i have a lot of things that just arnt up to snuff and didnt turn out very good so they cannot see the light of day ever

traditional sketch wise its more like 50% bc i draw some thangs that are between me and god. not even in a nasty way necessarily but just bc its got whack ass anatomy

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn’t your thing

this makes me sad bc i know i have a lot of artists like that but i absolutely positively have absolutely 0 artist name recognition. like this isnt a bit and however much you think "haha everybody has a little bit of that" i guarantee you i am on a whole other level. i dont know who anyone is at any point in time and i have net-negative artist name permanence.

[anotherduckinthedepths]

Here be the den of someone who's interests always find a way back to Minecraft, one way or another

Anyhow, hello, I'm Depths! (It might change later just warning you) I go by she/her pronouns and enjoy drawing + rambling about things I find interesting.

This blog is for those drawings and ramblings, specifically those tied to the QSMP, DSMP, Sbi, mcyt in general, and maybe some ranboo content if Im feeling like it, I'm generally open for interactions with others! (Granted I'm not the best at initiating interactions) I only ask that you both respect the DNI list below DNI: - TERFs, Racists, Homophobes, just be nice to people please (I hope this is unnecessary but better safe than sorry) - Those who support death threats/doxxing towards ANY content creators ("but you don't like (Insert cc here)", doesn't matter, no death threat/doxxing for ANY of them, full stop, you can dislike people or heck even deeply hate them without threatening their lives or the lives of those around them) And please do not harass me or anyone else who might pop up here just on the stance that we happen to enjoy a game and a story that is unfortunately connected to some well-known but divisive people online. Important addition, do not feel afraid to interact if you happen to like the characters played by ccs I dont like/support ! I'm not gonna shoo you away, I see them as seperate entities, like a character in a movie and the actor that plays them who exists outside of that, to do otherwise would be hypocritical of me. I want to try and make this blog as welcoming as I can to fellow fans regardless of how I view things, I do not seek to change anyone's mind and make them agree with me, I just wanna provide silly content to whoever enjoys it. Important tags #Depth's Art or #Depth's AU Art - Drawings I have done on this blog, from sketches to fully-fleshed out art pieces (if I ever do that), the latter is used for drawings regarding AUs I have. #Depth rambles - Random silly thoughts. #Serious Depth mode - Mainly got this up in the event of more serious posts, likely focusing on issues/discourse in the fandom and/or just how it affects me. I dont imagine I'll use this often but I feel like I'll end up having to use it at least once to explain my view of things. If you'd rather avoid seeing discussion around this I would suggest blocking this tag. #Depth's OCs - The tag for my OCs, more than likely minecraft related. #Depth's Brainrot About Jubilant - A specific tag for a very specific character that's on the border between AU character and OC (if you don't feel comfortable seeing posts about them due to the character they're an AU version of (hint- 🟩 :) ) I completely understand and you're more than welcome to block this tag)

_______ I have had some AUs cooking up in my brain and may post about them on this blog, when this happens I will list them down here and provide the tag it's assigned if you want to see my posts for it. Unnamed Superhero Warlock AU (Features c!dream and XD as main antagonists for the most part) (Important Note - This AU is right now kinda in-between being an AU and an original work, it's definetely still in AU territory rn, but I'm thinking of trying to make it it's own thing) The superpowered world all knows and looks up to Pantheon, a long-lasting group of individuals granted with two powers instead of one, what the public mostly doesn't know is that this comes at the cost of becoming a servant to an entity beyond comprehension, and becoming nothing more than a puppet to serve it's desires to invade and control the material plane. Kristin is one of these members of the current Pantheon, tied to a entity of the afterlife, she's long been resigned to her destiny as Lady Death, she is doomed to hunt criminals (or just those who know too much) and those she's sent after are doomed to never escape, none she has been sent after even managing to escape one encounter with her. ... until a man soon to be named Sisyphus manages to get away. Tag - #Unnamed Superhero Warlock AU QSMP Pokemon Mystery Dungeon AU Exactly what it says on the tin, an AU where the players are humans turned into Pokemon and are now stranded in a large remote island in the Pokemon world. Littered with Mystery Dungeons and various other dangers that threaten both them and the pokemon they've been given to care for. Tag - #qsmp pmd au

[lemon-sugarcoats-nothing]

14. 🍋 and 🐝

Question 14 of the artist asks (Im sorry ive been sitting on this one for so long aaa): How has your art changed over the years?

My art hasnt changed much honestly! i've gotten better at watercolor painting, and acrylic paints, and i'm getting the hang of digital too! - 🍋

🐝 - ...Oh boy, another long history lesson today, Strap in. To keep things a little easier on me to keep condensed, I'm only going over my traditional pony art and NOT digital art. (Im not sure how much of the digital art i could even recover anymore)

TL;DR I've gone through many phases in my art, both pony and otherwise. I started out drawing ponies in 3rd of 4th grade in a very cartoon style, then trying to copy the show style, then with anime eyes to varying success, and finally to where i am now.

Alright so long ass history lesson:

This is my earliest attempt at making my own ponysona; i was really into applejack and wanted my pony to be in the apple family! This oc didnt really go anywhere though, and i dont think i drew her again. This was also early on, before i started following tutorials for drawing ponies.

A bit later, after drawing ponies while following tutorials for a while, I started trying to draw them in my own style. At the time, I was mostly trying to draw in an anime style with my humanoid drawings, and so the big eyes transferred over. During this time, most of my drawings were in blue ballpoint pen on notebook paper or printer paper. I was drawing a lot during my (online) classes and I would fill out pages and pages like this.

While i wasnt using tutorials as often anymore, i still watched a LOT of pony drawing content. At some point, i discovered some videos that inspired me to expand how i drew even more, and i started adding more graphite and colored pencil into final drawings.

Videos in question:

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmSN3VtdD0

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTyMx2H-nuI

A bit later, i also got into creepypasta drawings for mlp and some of the songs (specifically for rainbow factory), but i didnt ever read or listen to MLP creepypastas on their own until much much later. I did however, write my own two page creepypasta comic for pinkie that i never kept up. I think i intended to but after 24 hrs i forgot and dropped the project. Ironically, I tried to redraw it a few years ago as a humanoid comic, stretching it out into i think...10 pages? until my hand got tired and I never actually got to the creepypasta part of the original first comic page. (If you'd like to see, let me know! I still have them, but there would be too many images to post in this already really long post)

Oddly enough, i noticed that around this time i was also mostly drawing either creepypasta, psychotic ponies, or drawing ponies sad and crying. Just a weird little note.

I had a short phase where i drew ponies with more boxy muzzles too, but most notable here is that i finally remade a ponysona! I would keep this sona until I would stop engaging with MLP content and go through my "Ew, mlp weird" phase.

This was also from my time of boxy nosed ponies, and I think the first image was inspired off of a drawing that came up on a google search but i dont remember. I redrew it a while later, after practicing with colored pencils more. The redraw happened sometime during my "Ew mlp" phase.

And now we enter more current stuff. all these drawings are still old but are more in line with what i draw now, and were while i was starting to come out of my "Ew mlp" phase.

First image, you can see this is one of the first times I drew Lucious as a pony. At the time, in the main rp he's from he was still just straight up a demon. And in the second image is a sketch dump of the mlp characters, where i was jut getting more comfortable drawing them again. Still held onto those boxy noses though.

No style change here, but there was a time in my humanoid art where i would draw my and Mocha's characters as royalty. Then i went and drew them as ponies in those outfits! the first image you can see Cinna as an alicorn, and an early version of Lemon was just a unicorn. In the second image, was one of my first attempts to draw Jaysir! I guess its not too far off.

Last is just this pencil drawing of Lemon when their name was still Lemon Sugar-Moon! After this point, i think i took another break from drawing ponies until we come to current day where my style of drawing ponies has less boxy noses, and more pointy, less realistic and just a bit more fun for me personally :D

Who knows where my pony art will go next! Thank you for your ask and I'm sorry again that this has taken so long for me to finally just sit down and type out lol

[kaeyapilled]

okay hehe im about to be really delulu.

this song is sooooo them in their breakup era. either during their actual academic divorce or in a nebulous situation where they dont ever solve their issues and drift away from each other. i think both fit in different parts of the song and i dont know which to choose lmao why choose one interpretation though. make it about both and neither go crazy go stupid. here are the lyrics!!

(acrilic on canvas - legião urbana)

it is yearning, then and once again of you i made the most perfect drawing ever made the strokes i copied from what did not happen, the colors i chose among the pigments i made up, i mixed with the promises that the two of us never made i worked on you in light and shadow

!! i know kaveh's thing is architecture and not painting but! i just think it fits thematically either way. besides you need to be a bit metaphoric about it. something something missing a person very much even though they hurt you and you hurt them and your memories of being together are bittersweet. building something (in a literal sense or not) with pieces you have kept of them and keeping it close to your heart. having mixed feelings about it, that product of both your love and your resentment towards them. yeah. okay rest of the song where you can feel everything i just talked about

i prepared my canvas with pieces of the bedsheets that we never got to dirty the frame i made with the wood from your bedroom window from the gates of your house, i made palette and easel and with the tears that didn't stay with you i distilled linseed oil and from your bed i ripped away pieces that i cut up in different sizes and i made, then, paintbrushes with your hair i made coal out of the lipstick i stole from you and with it, marked two vanishing points and sketched my horizon

this entire part makes me go insane i just really like it. oh the lyricism.... oh..... ah...... it's also the part that slaps the most in the song if you, hypothetical reader, end up listening to it (WHICH I RECOMMEND EVEN IF YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE I SWEAR ITS A VIBE ITS MY FAVORITE SONG) (okay let's proceed)

and it was always "i didn't mean it i swear i didn't mean it, i didn't want to hurt you i promise that it won't happen another time" and it was always, always the same again the same betrayal sometimes it's difficult to forget "i'm sorry, she doesn't live here anymore" but then why do i pretend that i believe what i make up none of it happened this way it wasn't like this nobody suffered and it's only you who causes this empty yearning trying to paint these flowers called heartseases and forget-me-nots

(translator's note i was very happy that forget-me-nots are called the same thing in both portuguese and english so the meaning isn't lost but heartseases are called "perfect love", which. adds to the meaning okay. so yeah. but heartseases also kinda hits and fits so its alright)

anyway DO YOU SEE MY VIEW? DO YOU GET IT!! ITS SOOOO THEM it's them in their angsty breakup arc. and i just love the imagery of the song which i think fits them too!! from kaveh's pov specifically because he's the artist of the relationship.. anyways i just spent like half an hour typing out this post im a little ill and diseased over it

im gonna post another fucking messy translation of a song by the same band i never shut up about and i will make it about kaveh and alhaitham and im gonna be so annoying about it.

[marsupial-tapir]

i sat bolt upright in bed at 2am with a divine vision of jack braiding sammy’s hair

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[animalinvestigator]

CODA 5 10 14 21

OLLY!!!!!!!!!! Hi. thank you for the ask : )

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

these days it's probably around 85% that i post and 15% that i don't share, ever since last year i've really started to see the value in my own "unfinished work", so i kind of just throw most of the things that i make out there because i think they could be meaningful even if they;'re not "presentable" per se. in the past, it used to be a lot closer to like, posting 25 to 30% and not posting 70%, because the majority of my drawing happened on printer paper at school or in a sketchbook at school. nowadays, the mspaint doodles i make fill the same ecological niche as those sketches, and they're much easier to share, so i share them : )

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

big oversized sweatshirts of course.I love drawing floppy sleeves and i love the altered silhouette you get when you draw baggy clothes. close runner up would be cute frilly dresses because i love drawing petticoats& scalloped lace, also i have fun drawing shoes a lot, pretty much all kinds of shoes are fun ^___^

14. Any favorite motifs

this is actually a bit hard for me, i'm not really sure..i really like using motifs that exist in stories that i make art of, and i certainly have motifs in my stories too, but i dont know if my art itself has motifs . i guess i relaly like blending mundaneity and cuteness with anguish & horror? i draw lot of stuff from my own life. "angel art" comes up a lot, incidental self harm scars come up a lot, those are both facts of life for me. i like drawing people clinging to eachother, i like drawing people sitting in weird autistic poses. thats about all ive got. if you were asking about like, specific subjects, like pscop art or utdr art or like art for my ocs this would be easier. but in general i just incorporate things that mean a lot to me in all cases.

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

I like art styles that look nothing like my own wayyy more than ones that look close to mine lolllllll um well i do really love super stylized down mega cartoony basic shapes art styles, i am envious of people who draw like that because i think its so aweosme. my faovirte art conventions in the world i think is things that combine a clear and obvious degree of skill in rendering and constructing shapes and art fundamentals with subject matter taht you usually wouldnt see rendered in that way, like simplified cartoon animal drawings combined with like beautiful oil paint rendering or like late 2000s shoujo manga styled characters standing in front of beautiful intricately detailed backdrops, i eat that shit up i love the dichotomy. i love people with super saturated art styles and bright bold colors and clean lineart, its sooo different from my life its lovely. i dont know i like a lot of art thats just some of it thats different from mine that come sto mind.

THANK you ollysmiles widely this is fun to talk about.

[voidandradiance]

hello! from the fic writer thingy; 1, 8, 9, 17, 25, 36, 37, 41 and 42 !!!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

oh boy uh. for dsmp, by far, can i sleep in your house tonight or like i've never been are my strongest works. best foot forward, and all that.

for mianite, though... i love the karma series but it's a Lot, so maybe vintage misery or stars burn out. peak identity theft for both of them, tbh, but they're Good.

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

i've done most of the Splash Potion of Brainrot ones, but left on the list are:

the plagues from prince of egypt, 100 bad days by ajr, home to me by devil and the deep blue sea, thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos, dirty by grandson :)

9. How do you find new fic to read?

i subscribe to vav on ao3. and also scroll the wilbur soot character tag with dozens of excluded tags. and also read my friends' stuff.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

my batshit insane tubbo- and andor-centric vigilianitee au, my fucking beloved. put those boys in situations. someone becomes a magical girl and i'm not telling you who.

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

i have the mental illness transcription doc, which is roughly 80 pages of transcribed mianite dialogue written out in script format, and i reference that pretty often. i've also got a folder of about 725 screenshots of mianite references, so. yknow.

36. Do you visualize what you read/write?

....sometimes? i guess? i'm really fuckin bad at it when i do, but i end up sketching out reference maps or using screenshots bc my spacial awareness is a little bit Really Bad

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

all of my mianite fics.

nahhh as far as dsmp fics go, i have to say just give me a happy middle is one that i loved and most people didn't. it was just posted at a weird time, i think? idk. food as a metaphor for love.

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

THIS ONE. THIS ONE RIGHT HERE. it was the first one of vav's ao3 fics that i read, and i lost my fucking mind. the imagery. the detail. the pacing. the quilt. OUGH i wish i could fuckin Do That with words. i dont care if yall warch mianite or not i am telling you to read the fic

42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

the tipping point for me becoming a wilbur main was zanna zannolin's comment on save the world. so. yes. anyone who leaves long detailed comments analyzing symbolism or easter eggs or characterization, i would already die for you, but that comment specifically is one of the things that got me to start writing wilbur-centric stuff as a whole. thanks king.

[axemetaphor]

im definitely not ripping off my friend by making a list of au ideas i have no siree //gonna slap this under a readmore cause i. well i say a lot. all of the time. i tried so hard to format this Good but tumblr fucked me up i am so sorry

so first-off i know i already have one WIP AU (Auckland) on ao3 so i wont talk about That one cause like. spoilers. i actualyl have it like 80% created so its likely gonna truly get finished for once and i dont wanna ruin shit

the other one ive posted about is something me and ben (catgirlrepublic) have worked on together its not at all close to done or anything but it's. a fun little crossover. Between jdate and my fuckinuhm. Original characters story “Untitled Villains Project”. the sketches of the comic version ive started is actually my pinned post 👉👈 its like the first chunk of the story, i think half of part 1? yea.

Tldr john fucking Somehow is able t oget into contact with a certain curious scientist from another reality who’d just love to study the Soy Sauce, most certainly not for her own nefarious purposes

John and Dave meet up with the scientist, her name is Boss, and her lab assistant, Toxic, and after a bit of a preliminary Vibe Check where john determines her trustworthy (which Dave doesnt agree with,) the two agree to be taken to the world UVP is set in. from there they stay in Boss’s lab (big old fucking abandoned military lab). John and Toxic are fast friends due to mutual love-of-chaos. John n Dave get to fuckin, camp out on an air mattress.

The day after they arrive, the two get split up, not exactly intentionally; big plot points of UVP are liek. Fueled by Boss sending Toxic to go fetch her “research materials,” which are usually important artifacts

Fuckin side note i guess i have to explain my dumb bullshit: Boss’s, uh, field of expertise so to speak is actually fckin, basically the scientific study of magic and superpowers n shit like that. This shit’s all real in that world. Toxic’s got fuckin superpowers, so do 4 other main characters, whatever. It’s got a bit to do with spirituality, iss Boss’s hypothesis. So she has Toxic fetch important artifacts that might have “energies” to them. The thing is actually way more fuckin complictated than that, this is just Boss’s initial hypothesis.

Motherfucking anyways. So Boss gives Toxic a job to do, and John get excited about how Cool that sounds, and ends up going with Toxic, leaving Boss and Dave alone. Neither is thrilled about this. But Dave and Boss get to have a bit of conversation (while Toxic and John are off bonding and having a good time) and come to a… mutual grudging understanding of some kind. They still dont like each other though lmao

Theres gonna be deeper shit going on but we havent sorted it out yet/tbh havent like Written For It in a while but i still like thinking about it a lot lol

Also pretty sure our endgame is john and dave steal toxic and bring them back with em lmao boss is kind of not nice and toxic would most certainly be better off in Undisclosed. Actually theyd fucking love it. Theyd become a local cryptid im sure. Undisclosed’s mothman is a teleporting spike baby.

I have. Another crossover AU that i might. Post something about for halloween? Maybe? If i have it finished?

Crosses over into, you guessed it, another one of my original-character projects. God, am i vain or something?

I promise this is just because i think blue and dave should get to team up to beat up some monsters

Quick briefing on my fuckinuh. Original character story, this one doesnt have a name (yet? Idk lol my work never actually goes anywhere sso who gives a shit). It centers around two grim reapers, Red (26, bi woman) and Blue (22, aroace agender asshole). In this reality or whatever, grim reapers function kind of like low-level office workers. They get told who’s going to die + when by some middle-management types, and upper management only involve themselves when punishment needs to be doled out. These Higher-Ups can be seen as analogous to Korrok; they’re decidedly not human, never were, and fucking terrifyingly powerful. Additionally, grim reapers are sort of .. designed to be “background noise” people. In reality theyre supernatural beings and, uh, look Real Fuckin Weird (the whole deal has a neon aesthetic im terrible at drawing uwu) but most humans just perceive them like extras in a movie. A body’s there but the camera’s not focused on it.

To the narrative: the shit starts when Red n Blue get relocated to Undisclosed. Relocation is something that just happens every now and then to reapers; they usually work in teams, but they get split up into different cities to avoid any strong bonds forming (a counter-union strategy from the Higher-Ups).

Red, Blue, John and Dave end up running into each other for the first time in a McDonalds where John n Dave are getting some 4am “hey, we just survived another horrific monster fight” celebration burgers. John and Dave are the only two people who can see how… strange Red and Blue are. Nobody else notices.

John unintentionally pisses Blue off, leading to Blue whacking him upside the head with a dildo bat. They all four get kicked out of McDonald’s. Dave and Red both are less than thrilled

Blue and John end up resolving their differences, somehow. Red and Dave briefly bond over their dumbass best friends being, well, dumbasses. They all part ways amicably.

somehow-or-other (idk yet) they end up running into each other a few more times, and eventually john invites them over to his place, and the four (plus Amy now!) get to know each other a little better

while there, Blue gets a text about some guy who's gonna die and John offers to drive them to where that's gonna go down. they take him up on the offer and get to have a bit of one-on-one conversation

after that ordeal though Blue has had Enough of people and bails, leaving John to head home alone

theres a sort of mirror-development going on with the five of em. Red, John, and Amy would all like everyone to get along, though theyre a bit tentative about it (John moreso than the other two, actually, jsut cause. well Red n Blue could still be Sauce Monsters). Dave and Blue on the other hand do Not like people enough for this shit, and Dave's not unconvinced theyre Sauce Monsters. he will not trust them until proven he should

the story's kinda nebulous but i got an idea for some Shit going down that involves both Sauce Monsters and also the Higher-Ups to have some fuckin absolute chaos go down.

Oops! All Trans

Everybody is transgender. Everyone

Ive actually workshopped this one both with ben (catgirlrepublic) and ghost (ghost-wannabe) lmao its a fun lil concept ive had from the get-go cause i mean. What’s an internet tran gonna do other than hit all their favourite media with the Everyone’s Trans beam

Dave transitioned post-high school and faked his death for it. People go missing in Undisclosed all the damned time, after all. He moved to the next city over, transitioned fully, then came back as a completely new man. Yes i know this doesnt exactly fit with the “everyone knows David from high school” thing alright, hush.

Anytime anyone brings up John’s old best friend (pre-transition Dave) John throws an entire fit like an overdramatic grieving widow. Full-on sobbing “why would you bring her up?! I miss her so much—” to the point that people just stop bringing up because Jesus Christ That Sure Is Uncomfortable KJHGFDS.

This is a scheme he and Dave came up with prior to Dave leaving, though Dave hadnt exactly anticipated John putting on this much of a performance about it— but it’s stopped Dave from ever having tto hear his deadname again, so hey.

Amy transitioned sometime in middle school/early high school. Her family was super supportive and loved her a ton and most people just know her as Amy. she was super shy her whole life really so. Yeah. people just dont think to bring it up lmao also i Feel Like big jim would absolutely wallop anyone who gave her trouble of any kind

John’s nonbinary (genderfluid specifically) and not exactly Interested in transitioning ? like hes fine with how he is. mostly.

he came out to Dave in high school but hes not out to anyone else exactly. Maybe his bandmates. Probably any other trans person in Undisclosed knows, too, cause theyre safe to tell lmao. Johns mostly a “he/him out of convenience” kinda nb who’s cool with any pronouns but does prefer they/them most. Dave and Amy use they/them when the trio are alone

Also this is a totally self-indulgent caveat that i think would be great, Dave’s actually agender but because he's transmasc and transitioned when he thought there were really only two options, and being Boy at least felt less weird than being Girl, he just kind of assumed he was a dude. It’s only through a lot of (like fucking years and years hes probably in his 30s/40s when he puts 2 and 2 together on this one) talks about gender with John that he realizes he actually feels like No Gender. Masc aesthetic with none gender.

I Just Think It’d Be Neat Is All Okay

Also Amy came out to Dave about being trans early on in them seeing each other and his response was to get very nervous before blurting out “me too” and then just being too embarrassed to talk about it for the rest of the day. Hes got a lot of hangups on talking about it actually it takes years for him to get comfortable in that

by contrast when Amy comes out to John about it his response is to yell “EYYY ME TOO” and give her a big ol hug lmao

I think itd be neatt if Amy ran a like. Transfem help/advice blog on tumblr. Kind of helped-with by John who can give her transfem nb insight for certain asks. I also just think that would be neat.

Cowboy AU - i put this one last cause its got drawings to it actually. Theyll be at the bottom

Basically just. Hey you ever watched a western. I think they look neat

This is another one me n ben have come up with lol

The soy sauce and all that shit still exist, im not sure where korrok fits in yet but ill figure it out

Theres no real like solid narrative yet ? but heres the barebones of everybody’s arcs.

John

Johns an absolute troublemaker, Of Course. Hes wanted in several towns for absolutely stupid shit. Hes a loner who shows up, causes chaos, gets drunk, does some drugs, runs away if people get too mad at him

He definitely had the same kind of deal with the soy sauce as in canon— he was at some kind of party, somebody offered it, he took it cause why the fuck wouldnt he, now he can see monsters and shit

Hes kind of a mooch also. Like. dont let him stay in your barn man he’ll never fucking leave and drink all your booze.

He runs into Dave when they happen to just, cross paths in the same town. the bullshit John stirs up ends up involving Dave in a way that makes it seem like it's his fault too, and they both get run out of town

after that he just tags along after Dave. hes decided this guy's Cool he wants to stick around. Dave is pissed at first, but not enough to shoot him or anything, and eventually, John grows on him

Dave

Dave also is a loner but unlike John hes simply so fucking awkward and bad with people. He doesnt feel like he belongs anywhere so he just travels

He’s the stereotypical Lone Ranger tbh. He wanders from town to town, solving their problems, though hed deny its out of any moral obligation (it kinda is, a little bit, tbh. He does like feeling useful). He shows up, fixes things, leaves. He's kind of a legend but most people think he's hiding something dark. other people jsut know him as that guy who farted real loud in the middle of the saloon and promptly skipped town out of sheer embarrassment. you know how it goes with Dave

He ends up involved with the Soy Sauce when a snake (not Actually a snake,) bites him. The snake’s more like the wig-monsters, really. Anyway, it injects him with the soy sauce, he fucking trips balls in the middle of the desert, he can see monsters now

He runs into John and shit goes tits-up, as said, but they become traveling buddies after that. he'd never say so, but he's glad for the company, actually. it's nice. hes not used to companionship but he feels a strange kind of easiness hanging out with John....

not sure how the Monster Dave concept will like fit in to this reality but like. trust me i want it in here. I'll Figure It Out.

Amy

Amy’s been living in a town John and Dave end up passing through and she is very curious about these two new Handsome Strangers who claim to fight monsters and just kinda. Persistently tags along til they let her join for real

Her family’s all dead, unfortunately, just like in canon, and she’s been living alone for a few years before meeting John n Dave. she had nothing left in that town to stay for, she'd been fantasizing about escaping on wild adventures for a long time and this felt a little like a dream come true. (Dave still gives her a spiel about how Difficult it is, but really, her fantasies were pretty grounded-in-reality already. i jsut think thats how she is, yknow?)

Shes the first person to react to the whole “we see monsters” shit with a kind of “oh, okay. neat” kind of response lmao

John and Dave fix whatever the fuck is up with her town (maybe that’s where the Korrok shit can fit, who knows) and Amy ends up being integral to that. After, she insists they take her with them because “they need her now” and Dave just cant really say no. John too is very much "the more the merrier!" and hes actually glad to have another person along he loves people lmao

At the start she has long hair but after she joins them she chops it short with a knife for convenience

also she still is an amputee. justt. idk. it was a wagon/stagecoach accident rather than a car accident lmao. just to clarify since i hadnt mentioned it, i wouldnt rob her of her ghost hand or yknow. all of the significance to her character that Missing A Hand has. although also now im going to have to research what was used as painkillers way-back-when, but im betting shes still got, like, her pain pills, they probably had those, maybe i wouldnt have to try too hard there. old timey medicine could be WACK though,

Shitload

Yeah hes in tthis shit mostly cause i liked designing his cowboy self lmao

Hes a kid (like 16, 17, technically i think in those days that was more Young Man than Kid but whatever. Hes Young i mean.) who got possessed by the Worms out in the desert and, by his family’s perception, just went missing!

Hes also a wanderer, but he ended up at the same town john and dave met in, at that same time, and starts following them after, already aware of who/what they are.

He keeps his face covered 24/7. actually he covers a Majority of his self for reasons. kinda want him to be a slightly more horrifying Worm Entity rather than human idk,

I kinda dont have much for this boy yet sorry Shitload

images !

with some editing notes for me cause im doing a very specific aesthetic with this lmao. i might change some lil details/colours though ...... idk

im also kinda 🤔 about shitload's colour palette. i want things assoicated w the sauce to be black'n'red predominantly but i think his palette might mirror dave's too closely. also im working on a korrok design i jsut am too busy to draw it now

[gryphsdeadbones]

hey from one nd person to another the comic where fm gordon says a slur seems kind of in poor taste. ik ur not intentionally making light of it and tht occurring in fm should be criticized but while you dont make it out to be a good thing making jokes about it and calling him a "slurboy" is kind of questionable? it makes it seem more like a plotpoint and angst rather than the creator of fm genuinely fucking up in the past (and having moved on from it)! i think exploring fm coming to terms with being nd is a good idea but this isnt the best way to do it. if you want me to explain my point more lmk if/when u post this and i will! someone already made a post abt it but it was kinda strongly worded and i wanted to approach you more calmly because i genuinely dont want to call you out or start drama or anything ;-;

first off thank you for being civil and patient with me i appreciate this ask a lot- also this got long- im not in a flying rage or anything when i bold or emphasis text, i just needed it also for my own readability and since im not the best at wording- hopefully this hellsite works and my response is under the cut

i would like to know how is it in poor taste when freemind explicitly gets clocked at the very end for saying it. the entire point of the comic was to show that saying the r slur has existed in his source and is bad

im not sure how much more direct i can get, with the disclaimer/warning list growing longer and longer and out there for a huge sign that says “this au can get dark as fuck and these subject matters are treated seriously/not something to mess around with.” Like yes, there are some jokes in the asks and other comics, but that specific comic is not supposed to be “haha thats funny”. it has a serious tone using a rough sketch style bc i was super tired and wanted to vent

was it just the direct reference to it that just made people uncomfortable? because thats 100% understandable, and i made sure i tagged it appropriately (although admittedly, a little bit late since i thought the filter would catch at least the main thing)

i think what some people somehow got from it is “exploring sensitive content = endorsing said content” which! that is not the intent! i absolutely do not want people saying that word! I don’t want people thinking that is any way okay for this character to say

its more of a damned if i do address it, damned if i dont.

if it never comes up, people are gonna assume that ‘oh this character says slurs and is shit, surely the creator or fan-creator MUST be okay with it and woobifies freemind and absolves him of any mistakes’ or something like that. no. this asshole has an arc and i want to do it right. its serious and i think it shouldn’t be shoved under the rug

and people just. dont want to read for context for whatever reason. theyll start watching it and get taken aback by the slur and start blaming me ‘hey you never warned for this’ when very early on i keep mentioning over and over ‘you dont have to watch it if you dont want to! This has slurs and 2000s internet brand humor/style’ You really dont, I’m not forcing you to watch it- Literally all you need to know is either canon half life or hl/vrai. thats it. fm mostly follows hl1 with very slight changes.

so i had to make something that:

1. warns people who arent aware and dont want to go through my asks or about/warning pages (for whatever reason) and just want to see the art

2. also NOT downplay freemind’s canon assholery. listen, i kinda despise writing mean and cruel characters, theyre hard to do, and a lot of people get shit for doing it wrong or people going “character = author”

i’ve also considered leaving the bubbles blank, but then people could fill it with whatever they want, then blame me for being vague. or they’d fill it in with a different kind of slur that freemind has never used, even if he MIGHT be the type to do that. I needed to explicitly mention that it is ableist slur. There are shitty racist and other problematic jokes, but never those kinds of extreme racial slurs to my knowledge.

Although I do see your point that maybe joking about it outside of the serious stuff might not be the best route. The slurboy jokes are getting stale, and I will try a better way to remind people.

The thing that gets to me is that it feels people are more than ready to defend either Ross Scott or Gordon Freeman the fictonal character himself. I don’t??? really care for Ross Scott, so I don’t know if he’s ever brought it up specifically. I’m not really calling him out or cancelling him. Idc for some white man’s feelings, im only bringing the timeframe of That era and reworking it to fit in This current era.

And I hate to break it to people: Gordon Freeman is a blank slate character, you can project whatever the hell you want on him as long as it’s not freakshit illegal garbage. The machinimas (fm, hl/vrai) do have SOME characterization that I want to nail down. It fucking sucks when characters are ooc, and I’m trying not to do that, even if it means sacrificing some comfort. But still mostly staying in my comfort zone if that makes sense

Now about the callout that I do not want to engage with the op directly:

Honestly im very surprised the comic was called out when i just. thought my stuff is relatively tame on exploring the bad shit canon freemind does. ive seen him in fancontent where they really dont hold back and its still played off as ‘kinda funny’ tone.

I really don’t know if people just want any reason to hate me for whatever reason. That’s fine I guess, I can’t please everyone and they dont have to like me.

But like. isn’t it so much easier for the op of that to block me and the post and move on. Why kick up such a fuss. I can see that thinly veiled death threat of a vague. That’s pretty fucked up- Like holy fucking god, you do not have to like my stuff. I’m not holding you at knifepoint to like my stuff. I’ve specifically made two different tags (one general au, one specific au) if anyone wants to blacklist it for their own reasons I do not need to know. I don’t want to know.

You’re allowed to be uncomfortable. You’re allowed to unfollow/blacklist/block.

However you just don’t go ranting about it for something you horribly misinterpreted. If it bothers you so badly, literally just. drop me a message to clarify. thats it. or save yourself the time and block me.

I’ve blocked the op for both our sakes, but if anyone wants to send this post to them, then thats fine. I don’t want anything to do with them.

I don’t want to link the post and blow it up. I just want shit clarified, dropped and we can move the fuck on with our lives. 

If you’re reading this and don’t know what the post is, please don’t bother. I do not want people going after the op with threats, please keep it civil, I’d prefer if you don’t engage with the post at all on my behalf.

Despite this huge wall of text, I do not want this to be a big deal, so please don’t ask me about the details.

_

As for anon, feel free to dm me either on here or. Maybe on discord if you’d still like to suggest or have something more cleared up. I’m still willing to hear any kind of feedback, and i want to thank you again for being reasonable about this