#i want to draw more fanart for the webcomics I follow in general

[ohnoitstbskyen]

PINNED POST, FAQ, INFORMATION

Hi, I'm TBSkyen. I make videos on YouTube sometimes. This is my main tumblr blog, the "brand" blog as it were, where I maintain my Social Media Presence™ on this site.

I use the ironic ™ to signal my personal discomfort with the work of being a minor media personality even while I still do that work and make a living off it.

I have a sideblog called @tbposting, mostly for shitposts and reblogs, and in my opinion I have pretty darn good taste in reblogs, so you can follow that if you want. It's also where I'll do random personal posting, microblogging, etc.

This main blog is primarily for 1) answering asks, and 2) posting my Original Content™, usually my main channel videos, as well as the occasional longer essay or critique. Sometimes I'll reblog an interesting or useful thing, or boost a friend's work, but I try to keep the spam to a minimum.

---

About Me

I am a thirtysomething content creator whose primary expertise is character design.

I have a bachelor's degree in English, never finished my master's, did most of a bachelor's degree in history, and that's it. These are my academic qualifications, no more and no less.

My professional experience is primarily being a freelancer and self-employed creator. I spent the better part of a decade working as a commission artist, running webcomics, drawing fanart, and the occasional animation work and not safe for work commissions, and I have at this point a decade of experience and self-study in the subjects I cover. I have also done online community management for, god help me, almost twenty years, so that's a part of my skillset I'll never escape.

I do not have any particular professional creative industry experience, although given what I hear from my professional friends, sometimes that seems like a blessing.

Please maintain a critical distance when engaging with my work. I am a critic. My work is very rarely meant to be taken as authoritative or didactic, and when it is, I will make it clear in my writing. Just because I speak with confidence doesn't mean I am trying to assert objective truth.

---

TAGS (to follow, or filter)

#tbanswers is the tag for every single ask I answer on this blog

#tb reblog is the tag for reblogs

#tb essay is for the occasional longer essay or critical writing

#tbvideos is for my videos and Content™

#tb recommends is for the occasional recommendation of a video essay or other creator

Yes, I know the spaces are inconsistent. It's not on purpose, I just typed them in haphazardly when I started using them and it's stuck.

---

FAQ (before you ask)

Q: Will you ever do a video about ____ ? A: The answer to this question is almost universally "maybe someday, if I have time, and if I feel I have anything worthwhile to say." And the more realistic answer is "no, because I already have far too much on my plate and I have burned myself out too many times." In general, please don't ask me this question, I will most likely not answer it because I have given the same answer a thousand times, but I still feel guilty about not answering them.

Q: Will you continue your series of videos about ____ ? A: Yes! I will continue the let's plays I started, I will finish the Boss Designs series, I will do another What's the Deal With, I will do more shorts about the subjects I've got going on. The main obstacle is, again, my tendency to overload myself.

Q: Do you have a PO box? Can I send you something? A: Not yet, but I'm looking into it. It may be a while before I get it set up.

Q: Do you have merchandise? A: A little bit, yes, at tbskyen.redbubble.com.

Q: What's your opinion on [game/movie/comic/book/etc]? A: I struggle to answer very open, broad questions like this. Most things I have opinions about, I have multiple opinions, and different ones depending on the perspective and specific element in question. I'm much more likely to answer specific, bounded questions.

Q: Can I send you fanart? A: PLEASE. Askbox, tag me on bluesky, send it to my email! I love seeing every piece of it!

Q: Why do you never appear on camera? A: A forest witch cursed me to look not quite but ALMOST like Paul Giamatti in all photos and videos ever taken of me, and his laywers sent me a cease-and-desist.

Q: Are you gay/straight/bi/other? A: The decision I've made for myself, at least for this period of my life, is that privacy is precious, and once given up can never be reclaimed on the internet. I am open about being aromantic (not asexual), because it's a sometimes invisible and underdiscussed identity, and I know it would have helped me a lot to see someone speak about it when I was younger.

The rest of it is for me to know, and for you to speculate about, although preferably somewhere I can't see it. I accept that this is a part of being a Personality, but it still feels weird, y'know?

Q: Is it weird if I find your voice kinda hot? A: I've put a lot of work into developing this voice and making it nice to listen to, so that's not weird at all and I find it quite complimentary, thank you.

I generally don't mind people doing flirty/thirsty posting about or at me, just so long as we all understand that 1) you should never give a stranger like me information which could be used to harm you. Nicer-seeming YouTubers than me have turned out to be monsters.

And 2) it will never go beyond playful online flirtiness. I like to fluster my live chat, I'll flirt back in an ask or a post maybe, but I am not flirting with you, or inviting any kind of closer intimacy with you, the person I responded to.

Think of me like a comedian doing crowd-work at a show - you can chat to me in the bar after the show, but when I asked you what you do for work I wasn't looking for a personal connection, I was doing my work as an entertainer. Please no sending me nudes, or propositions, or confession letters in my email inbox. We are strangers, and I am always performing a persona in public.

[solstrix]

ART RESOLUTIONS OF 2025

Looking back at my progress this year, I can see how much I have grown…. And exactly where I want to improve in the future! To help me figure out how to improve in those ways, let us make a list to further define my goals and objectives, as well as to consult if I ever feel I am losing my way. But the most important thing to remember, is that every piece made gets me closer to being the artist I want to be.

As a disclaimer, this list is extremely specific to my own goals, please! Feel free to share your goals if you have them! I’d be curious to see, and I genuinely feel inspired by hearing what other people want to work on.

Therefore, without further ado…

Work on comics!! When we really get down to it, this is my most significant and most important goal. I have always wanted to be a comic artist, to tell stories using my art… But I’ve been holding myself back, feeling that my skills were not good enough, not consistent enough, just… not enough in general. That’s a lie though, and it has been a lie for a long time. I’ve been drawing characters since junior high. Backgrounds have never been my strong suit, but that is something that can only be improved by drawing more of them… Which I would have been motivated to do for the sake of my comics! I can only get better if I make them. And so I simply must make them.

Stay in my lane! Make less fanart, and more original work! Now don’t get me wrong, fan art is fun to make, and if making art of your fave is what keeps you picking up the pencil, then do it! But for me… I always find myself at the end of the year, wishing I’d dedicated more time to my own projects, my own stories, my own artistic voice. So this year I want to commit myself to finishing the first chapter of my webcomic, to draw my own characters, to draw from life or reference photos I’ve taken myself. Fanart will now be an occasional treat, not the everyday meal, so to speak.

Embrace my own pace! I’ve talked about this before on here, but the fact that I’m a slow artist has long been a struggle of mine. To make a long story short, I’ve decided that thinking of this as a flaw was in itself the real problem, and that what needed to change was my mindset. After all, it is when I take my time that I end up most enjoying the process. This means I might occasionally have to skip posting for a week, but most difficult… This means I have to give up weekly/monthly challenges. I keep trying to do these, and I keep failing, and it keeps making me feel burned out and worse than before. I have to let go.

Explore and define different approaches to making finished pieces. This one is a little hard to explain, but perhaps one of the most important for this blog. In the past, I’ve convinced myself that there was only one way to truly finish a piece: start with a sketch, do clean lineart, then flat colours, and then shading and rendering. Only once every single one of these steps was done, could a piece be properly considered “complete.” Not only is this completely untrue, but it is also incredibly limiting, and… perhaps even part of what makes me a slower artist… And what really broke through to me last year, was that many of the artists I looked up to and admired, often didn’t even follow these “necessary” steps! Vespertiliu’s hatched inks are just as complete as Abigail Larson’s flat colours as Julia Lepetit’s blocked shadows as PricklyAlpaca’s painterly renderings. I have such a range of options at my disposal, and I’ve been limiting myself to just one! I hope to explore more of these options and become comfortable with each of them, until I can approach illustrations with an intentional style approach in mind. And not every illustration needs to be done the same way.

Draw more scenes! Like I mentioned above, backgrounds have been something I’ve struggled with, and which I wish I was more comfortable with doing. But drawing a background for the sake of drawing a background has always been a bit boring to me… And it’s only recently that I realized there was an extremely simple solution to this “problem”: throw in a character! Not only will this motivate me to draw the background in the first place, but it will help me improve at proportioning things, considering compositions, and, of course, it will make it easier to draw scenes for my comics.

Sketchbook and journal regularly. So here’s the thing: I actually LOVE making traditional art, just as much as digital art. In particular, traditional art tends to be my sanctuary of sorts, the art I make truly and only for myself. Most of it will never be posted, and that’s part of the point. Sketchbooking for myself is how I practice and warm up at the start of an art session, but most importantly, it is how I nurture my own creativity and my love for making art. I must ignore the voice that tells me that art made behind the scenes serves no tangible purpose to my presence online: it serves a purpose to me.

Find my audience. Now let me be clear: I appreciate every single one of you who follow my blog, watch my progress, share my art… But I have to be brutally honest with myself, and with you, here. The fact that my original art gets little to no attention compared to my fanart, is… a little soul-crushing. But this is something that can change. By prioritizing my original works this year, I hope this means I can eventually find those people who would love my original creations for what they are, and to whom my art speaks to and compels in the same way that it does to me.

Have fun, and enjoy the process. Avoid the traps of perfectionism and succumbing to social (or invented) pressure.

[kiwikarpart]

Art Plans for 2025 + News

Magical Girl Design Prompt Redux

In 2024, I tried to design around 30 magical girls with a different theme by the end of the year. I was not able to do this. At the start I tried to make a new design every day and got burnt out by that. After giving myself less restrictions while still following the prompt list, I ended up losing interest before getting to themes I really liked. So, for this new attempt, I'm ignoring the order of each prompt. If I think of a design for the challenge, I'll post it regardless of what day it's for. That's probably the best way to keep the challenge...a challenge, without losing the fun. Because trust me, coming up with 30 original magical girl designs that look good is challenging enough.

2. Developing Alternate Art styles

As I've been drawing, I've wanted my art to look like a lot of different things. Bad news is, one art style can't have everything you'd want. In order to stylize anything you have to exaggerate some elements, and trying to exaggerate everything usually makes it look bad. Good news is, this can be circumvented by having multiple art styles! I'm not going to set a crazy goal for myself on this, don't expect to have 10 different art styles that look exactly how I want them to look. My goal in this category is to have 3 alternate art styles that feel distinct from each other. They don't have to look perfect or even good, but if they all have a different feel from my main art style, I'm counting that as a win.

3. Colorful Cast of Characters

This is going to be a two-part challenge. The first part will focus on character design, where I have to make 6 different characters with a mostly mono color palette. That means everything from their hair to their clothes to their accessories has to be one color. The only exceptions to this rule are tones(black, grey, and white) and the skin, that can be natural if I want. For example, if I make a green character, they can have black shoes and a white shirt with brown skin, but everything else has to be a shade of green.

For the second part, I'm going to try to put all of these characters in the same world. It's more of a writing challenge than an art challenge so I won't go into detail here, but it'll be a fun creative exercise.

4. Learn How to Make Comics

I've made references to this here and there, but I want to make a webcomic. One that has a plot and story with my oc's. Unfortunately, I have no experience with making comics at all, and am not confident enough to jump into that dream comic with no experience. So in order to build that confidence, I'm going to practice paneling, perspective, and the other things that go into making comics. It'll start with fanart(because I don't have the balls to post unfunny stuff with my oc's), but I'll work my way up to oc content eventually. I haven't really shown off their character yet, to you guys they're just random character designs. I want other people to like them as much as I do, but that won't happen until I show off their personalities.

5. Post Ugly Art

"Kiwi what are you saying do you want your art to get worse-"

No! Of course I don't! What I mean by this is that I want to let go of the idea that all of the art I post here needs to be clean and finished. No artist is infallible, it should be okay to post a few rough sketches or uncolored line art, especially in Krita where it's a pain in the ass to color anything! I'm willing to bet that people wouldn't mind looser art now and then if it meant I posted more, that was definitely something I struggled with last year. So this one is less of a goal and more of a reminder.

News

As of January 1, 2025, I will no longer be posting discussion posts here. It feels a little weird making non-art posts on a supposed art blog, so this is the last post of that kind you'll see on this blog. I've made a 2nd blog for those general posts, so that this blog can be entirely focused on art.

[bbbartblog]

Angela from @buttersketches ‘s  webcomic The Reborn.

I drew this a while back, but I finally colored it~!

[joshua-beeking]

I'm very sad that fandom spaces (particularly mdzs it seems) have been unkind to you. I absolutely adore your original work but your fanarts have a special place in my heart because that's how I found you and your art is just so absolutely beautiful and I love it so much

I hope you're having a good day, you deserve to have just such a good day

That's incredibly sweet of you, I thank you kindly! It was a really thoughtful gesture and a nice thing to wake up to today.

I'm very sorry that I won't be drawing any MDZS anymore, the attitude of the fandom just killed any inspiration I had to draw for it and I won't force myself to do something I don't want to do anymore, I tolerated a lot for a long while. I know it made me "boring" now to so many people who used to follow me, but I'm far from the first one to "leave" because of harassment or from entitled attitudes for ridiculous reasons. ( Daring to draw " uncanon dynamics" and all that ridiculous debate about it, having Ace headcanons, etc, etc...)

People should take that time to think about recent fandom entitlement regarding artists in general, we are already exhausted from fighting against reposters/fraudulent companies stealing our works for profits/ expected to do -everything- for free and not asking a dime for it and live off sunshine and rainbows/ never getting acknowledged for anything original we make/ having to keep an inhuman pace of posting or be lost to the algorithm/screwing up my body as a multiple times chronically ill artist to keep said pace/social media screwing us OVER AND OVER/ Not having one single place viable for artists/ AI art now adding a big layer of crap over it all...

We are exhausted of swimming against the current and now even drawing things " for fun" gets you crap. It's tiring.

That's part of why I decided to concentrate on my original webcomic now, because there's no " debate" to have over something I created. It's very simple. ( The biggest part being that I am fond of the story I want to tell and want to draw and tell it.)

I'll be doing some fanarts here and there when I feel like it because something particularly inspired me, but I won't feel forced to anymore now that ( Thank goodness, I'll be forever grateful for that opportunity) I have a steady art contract now that will allow me to pay my bills at least. I gain a lot of freedom that I can draw what I truly want now instead of being forced to draw whatever is popular so that I can make sure I get the bare minimum of commissions that keeps me afloat. It takes a lot of time away from my webcomic work so chapters will take a lot more time to update but work is maintained, no worries!

The biggest compliment anyone can give to me right now is to keep on enjoying my works, whether that be my webcomic or my artworks in general. I give my entire gratitude to people who -stayed- regardless of fandom, purely because they enjoyed my works, and truly understand the struggles an artist face on the internet now.

Thank you.

[the-sheep]

ID GO ABSOLUTELY BONKERS IF U TYPED OUT HIS ENTIRE HISTORY FBFBFBFB i would like 2 see it..........

alright right right

This ended up being A HUGE POST so all info is under the cut.

Unless you’re on mobile, in which case, enjoy scrolling.

It all starts on flight rising. Well, Heart starts on FR. It REALLY starts with my webcomic/animated series.

It wasn’t well drawn or animated at first, but it steadily got better. One of the plot holes, back in 8th grade, was “who created priscilla and Jake?”

It was mostly summed up to “Penny made all the bots its all simple” but i was a middle schooler and i needed a complicated (and edgy) story. 

Thing is I had already made Fandragons of a good chunk of my ocs on flight rising.

I bred two dragons to get my main characters, so why not just use them?

Christy Suggested the name Cavet, and I liked it.

Yeah this is my first digital image of him as a human and he DOES NOT LOOK RIGHT

no necklace, no beard, orange eyes…

horrific.

So I made human designs for them both, but Chrysanthemum remains forgotten, not even canon to Mechanical Fury anymore.

Here’s old art of her and Cavet back before she got wiped out from existence.

the art is bad btu the Heart gimmick is there

Here’s him in his second image ever. The one that pretty much defined his design.He also quickly gained a husband

Anyway he quickly morphed into a villain several time more dangerous than the main villain

He’s responsible for the deaths of not ONE, not TWO, but THREE children.

Two his kids, one the younger sister of a character that one of the dead kids liked.

One of his dead kids got his own story, the other was literally a main character.

Chloride, (Charlie) in all his glory, lucky enough to get resurrected as an android but after finding out he’s not who he thinks he is, has to attempt to live a normal Human life… when his two best friends are paranormal investigators, his love interest having lost their arm and their only remaining sister to the main villain.

He originally found out he was an android by finding his own blueprints, hearing his Mom cry about it, and then cutting open his face (for his signature scar) and running off. 

Running into Cavet’s husband, Nathair Liu. He stitches him up, know all about robotic n all that but he is.

also a secondary villain….

I hate the art in this video but its not my worst.

(Video was Vendy’s debut, too. tho Vendy was more Nate(logan/mind/princi/whatever)’s kid than Cavet’s)

Okay i’ve gotten off track.

Yeah at this point I was really loving Cavet, on FR, and wrote an entire long story between him and Skittles based on the events of Mechanical Fury.

This was where I got the idea for reincarnation.

I needed an explanation for why the same character was in two different universes, and it was perfect. In fact, it lead to an amazing way to end it. 

But what is in control of all this? What does he see in the in between?

Well, Death was packaged with two other red herrings to keep people from thinking she was more important than them from the start, when in fact, she was. One of the plot points is that Cavet dies. He continues causing havoc, but nobody can figure out why or how. he doesn’t have a body.

Except he does. Death.

She was scary, but that was just her, she was a literal robot grim reaper. Nobody suspected she was spreading a virus to make robots susceptible to Augap’s control everywhere she went. Not even her. Cav liked hanging out in the AI scape, AKA the robot afterlife or virtual heaven.

What a fun way to make a real grim reaper.

I never really kept track of the transition from “cute robot char” to “cute real god char”

and i guess it never happened. Heart still thinks of her as she was, as cute little Litty. Except when she’s not. He gave form to the literal concept of DEATH. And became her friend. She still calls him Papa, sometimes.

In any case, Cavet’s doodles started being more and more revolving around his angst with the reincarnation.

in fact, i had a few character in the same boat as him, as I had made a couple dragons into MF characters as well.

I called them The Artifacts. It didn’t seem rounded out with only four, so I added a 5th. To give me more leeway in case I make a character i like enough to bring with them.

and turns out. I did.

I was sad enough about Cavet losing the love of his life, betraying him, creating a rift between them with his descent into obsession.

So he came with them.

They’re inseparable.

after a few lives of getting revenge on him for killing his sons and some adult humans and a BUNCH of robots, (not even counting his crimes in the vampire life he committed because he thought he lost Liu forever) Soul revealed to him something about Heart’s 6th life, which Mind doesn’t remember.

But he was there.

Long story short, he was Captain Shuggazoom. Yeah 10 lives of stuff he forgot before he started remembering his past lives. Messed Heart up.

ANYWAY BACK TO DEVELOPMENT!

I went around, making original characters to fill in Heart’s lives. I put him in a LOT of stories, but a notable one is My Old Ask Blog, @ask-musical-monsters

In which Heart is our lovable Tweedle, Bean.

He’s the bird. (this is also the blog where Willow was made!) (also a character i referenced when putting antauri on the baldi blog)

I still hadn’t abandoned MF so Bean has a lot of influence from Cavet. 

I REALLY liked bean. It occured to me here-ish that Heart isn’t constrained by being my oc. He can be whoever he wants and nobody will care. 

So of course I immediately declare him purple guy. No drawings of him, but I know I said he was purple guy at some point. Also at this point in time I started organizing the lives by number order, and making a simple arc for Heart and the others to follow.

1000 lives. 

I made a brief description of heart’s 1st life, but made it purposefully very superfluous so i can change it whenever i want. All i know is he had albinism, and a desire to live forever.

That summer I got an amazing idea. I would take advantage of the Baldi’s basics trend with a ASK BLOG.

It was a mathematically calculated success. I did as many things as possible to generate more audience. MAIN thing being posting as often as possible, and being REALLY funny. 

But knew I wasn’t going to like adding to the ask blog if i didn’t like the main character

I already knew he was going to be Baldi, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to characterize him either. 

Turns out making him heart solved both of those problems. He’s always been Heart.

And Princi has ALWAYS been mind.

Even if they don’t always show their artifacts, they always were the same people as all these other things ive made. They have a DEEP connection to both each other and me.

At some point, I re-re-discovered SRMTHFG. The first few seconds I saw SK I knew he was Heart. It was so perfect it scared me.

HE EVEN DOES THE POSE!!!!! RED EYES!!!! AAAH!!!

I got an idea for a storyline based on formless and regret and monkeys… so.. uh

Anyway that kinda brings us to today, where the events of the blog have happened based on Heart things, and i can play around with Heart as much as I want.

And Willie’s next life? Well, 23 is my favorite number. It’ll be cool, but I’m not sure how. All I know is 23 wears a striped shirt, and is a vamp again.

In summary, Heart is the most important character I’ve ever made, and I will never come close to anybody as wonderful and as complicated as him. He’s the greatest formless, the best villains, the heroes, and one character i want to hold out for finding irl.

 I love them even in scribbles i find on bus seats, in fanart of him, love her in songs i hear, in flowers i see in the wild.

Whoever they end up being, it’s safe to say I’ve fallen in love with Heart. 

If you want me to describe his in universe story, I’ll need a seperate post.

Other Heart Resources:

The Spreadsheet

The Playlist

[comicteaparty]

February 1st-February 7th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from February 1st, 2020 to February 7th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is the nicest thing someone has said about your story, whether its published or still a WIP?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Well, this is one I can answer right away. It's not a very straightforward answer, but I had someone reference me and my comic in an essay about reasons why they were able to love themself... It was for a creative writing class, and they just used me as an example of a greater thing (indie media)... and I only know about it because they asked me permission. but they let me read the essay, and it made me cry. I havent heard from them in a while and I really hope they're okay, but that really stuck with me in a way nothing else has. It's not really a quote, though, so the nicest comment I have recieved was "I can tell how much you love people by reading this story." It was really sweet in a way I can't quite articulate. People have been incredibly sweet to me, and I feel very blessed. I could make a long list detailing the kindness I have been shown.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Apparently Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) has made more than one person cry already. Which, to me, is pretty darn high praise, given that I've barely begun the story

Having people find it and say "THIS IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF STORY I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR" also hits a nerve. I know that feeling. You like certain themes/motifs and you wish someone would blend them together in just the right way. It can be magical.

And the last one is when I learned that children like it. A few have come forward so far - either in person or through their parents - and told me they loved it. It was around that age that I was building my own 'inner library' of inspirations for the comic. To know that I might be part of theirs, even in a small way, is just... the best?

Deo101 [Millennium]

that's all so incredibly nice <3

and now I wanna add to my list actually I don't want to interrupt, this is just a topic I wish I could sing from the rooftops about... I also had a student of mine (I am a teacher at a church) come out to me because he knew I would be okay with who he is. And, I have had people tell me it's inspiring to them, which kinda makes my heart melt. I'll stop now but, really I could go on and on about how open and loving people have been with me and my work, and how much it means to me.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Man... This is somewhat difficult for me to answer since I am so early into my comic creating journey. However, I will say that I recently got a comment on my comic Whispers of the Past (https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/list?title_no=191366) that made me smile. A long time reader commented that they always read my new pages twice, once on Webtoon, and again on Tapas. This really made me realize that my work has meaning to somebody other than myself, which is definitely what I need to hear when I'm doubting myself.

Mei

It's so nice reading about nice comments people have gotten and honestly... y'all deserve it!! I need to be in a better habit of commenting myself because I will promote comics to my friends for days on end but I'm too shy to leave a comment, even though I love receiving comments myself. I think the nicest comments I've received have been in combination with the conventions I was at last year. People told me that they thought the comic was funny, which I am incredibly thankful for. And one person who bought the book at the convention took the time to find it on Tapas and then comment on the latest page, saying that they'd talked to me, read the book, and that they liked it. That meant so much to me it was crazy! And another time, I was showing my book to someone at a convention and she said that she actually read the comic online, which honestly... It's so strange and surreal to me to meet anyone in real life who reads things posted online. It made my heart do smiley emoji. I think what LadyLazuli said is really right, this idea that you're a small part of someone's life or inspirations or just general day is pretty amazing?! Also this one guy commented on every page week to week with the same 'vase' joke on several updates and honestly the commitment was truly astounding

kayotics

I think some of the nicest comments come from one specific reader, who has mentioned a couple times that going back and reading the comic has helped them through some tough times. There was also one person who went to the effort of contacting me after their books were damaged from flooding, and wanted to buy new books to replace the old ones. This was wild since they wanted to do something so inconvenient (paying with cash by mail, and I didn't even have an online storefront in the first place) to replace the books.

twothirty

really early on i had 1 reader that would leave in-depth analysis of some character interactions and they were were spot on and made me really feel like people cared about this story . The other interaction that really stands out was doing the convention circuit last year I had a reader come up to say hi, and usually that interaction is just "i love your comic!" (which is amazing) but he also then talked to me at length about the story and again it was this feeling of just knowing someone out there cares about what you're doing. Comics feels particularly isolating so interactions like that really keep me going.

Funari (Raison d’Etre)

I've had two different readers tell me our comic has brought them joy during bad days. Sadly one of them I haven't heard from in 2 years and they were going through some rough times. I hope they're okay

Nutty (Court of Roses)

The nicest thing I've heard was when my coworker told me him and his daughter were reading it, and he told me that she's "drawing like me" with panels and stuff and keeps asking him "how do i make the bubbles" So they're gonna work on that and then he's gonna show it to me.

keii4ii

Any time someone gets what I'm trying to do with the story. I have a great fear of getting good intentioned people trashing the most important parts of my story (without realizing their importance). So whenever someone gets what the story is all about, whether as a whole or just one scene, it's a huge weight off my chest. Legit brings tears to my eyes. Even if I manage to overcome that fear some day, comments like that would mean a lot to me. Being understood has always been very important to me.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Someone recently said they wanted to get a tattoo of something in the comic and that was cool. It also means a lot when people respond well to the jokes in the comic because I put a lot into the writing to make it funny. I hope it makes someone cry someday Joe Is Dead http://joeisdead.com/read

DanitheCarutor

Ffff all my readers have been so compassionate, it's jarring! In a nice way! Choosing one nice thing is hard, every comment has been nice. I guess the most flattering is when a someone takes the time to go back to the previous chapters to link little things up with the current events in the story, or when they manage to remember in spite of how webcomics update so slowly. There was a comment I saved a while back where someone remembered a small thing in chapter 3 and was doing some brainstorming with it relating to the current chapter at the time.

Every so often someone also leaves a paragraph with some of the most motivational gushing, it's so nice! Oh! Also, there have been a few people who've asked me to print my comic so they can have a physical copy (which I'm slowly starting to do), which is super motivating knowing a couple people like my depressing comic enough to want to own a copy of it.

keii4ii

Oh man, I too have saved screenshots of some of my favorite comments, but I don't wanna share them because 1) some of them are long and 2) maybe the commenters wouldn't want their names disclosed in a different context? They are great to save for a rainy day, though!

Tuyetnhi

Oh this is hard I remember one comment on tapas that they got their aunt and cousin reading it and I was flattered! Most comments I got were about the artstyle and progression of the story, which I hope to continue if school lets me. Still, I'm quite surprised that it drove someone to get their family to read a romance about someone's dream lover lmao

also same keii!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly, I have far too many comments I should screenshot. But so many of them are praising the art, and I never know how to feel about it. Like, those types of comments make me happy, but I never know how to truly feel about them.

keii4ii

Art is admittedly easier to comment on. If I'm commenting on art on anyone's comic, I try to point out how it contributes to the storytelling, rather than "ooh pretty and shiny." Pretty and shiny is valid but I'd be just doing illustrations if that were my main goal!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

But if 9/10 comments are, "Wow, the art is so pretty!" I can't really react to it much, especially since my own self-doubt is constantly reminding me of my mistakes.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've been really excited to answer this question because it gives me an opportunity to thank any and all the fans and people who celebrate our work. I've been so humbled by all of the wonderful and amazing fanart we've received, music paired with scenes from our comic, and fans even imagining scenarios of the characters themselves-- I'm constantly blown away! I do have my most treasured moment however, and that was when we were tabling at TCAF a couple years back. We had been swamped with crowds, selling, and early mornings-- it was a long day! That was until we had one person who went through the trouble to see us in person, and handcraft a drawing to deliver to us, saying thank you, and in that moment I bawled!! They quickly left after us thanking them so much, and I'll never forget that and how much it gave us a fire to see this whole project through. We have it framed and it sits in front of our cpu

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I got one comment where someone said that one of my main characters "seems sweet," and it just left me confused because, a) he's only said about ten words total, and b) in those ten words, he has somehow managed to be rude.

So how is he sweet???

But I mean, I should be happy that he seems likeable despite his attitude and reticence

Tuyetnhi

nice lmao

I do agree about the comments about the artwork being pretty and idk how to repond other than thanks lmao(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yep

That's pretty much all I can say

Because I would HOPE my art looks pretty good after a decade drawing haha

Tuyetnhi

tho tbh because of the nature of my comic, I do get the occasional thirst comment and I'm just sitting there bawling

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh yeah, I get those

Tuyetnhi

"Wow he's buff"

"yea bc I made him like that lmao"

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

People drooling about my male MC mainly

It's so awkward, but I knew it would happen

Tuyetnhi

same, but for the male love interest and i'm like "this is expected lmao"

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I KNEW WHAT I WAS DOING

keii4ii

I get like 0 thirsty comment despite one of the MCs being an athletic cat dude with literal secret tentacles (I'm okay with not getting a lot of thirsty comments, but I do find it interesting)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I've gotten thirsty comments and my comic is not meant to be romantic or sexy at all

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh, I can leave you some thirsty comments

I love Lu

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I was going to say they are inevitable(edited)

but kei proved that wrong

Tuyetnhi

same I love Lu too lmao

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

And will gladly praise his hotness

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

if your comic goes on for long enough, i think you will get some eventually. it is a rule of the internet

keii4ii

It's been ongoing since Nov 2014 XD But I guess it takes longer for some than others!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@keii4ii I don't think you quite understand

I have never been attracted to animal-people before

I have always found anthros and such weird

And yet

Lu is totally my thing

Tuyetnhi

Strangely attractive for a cat guy lol

points for those who get the ref

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

how do you guys know what their comic is?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

He is way too attractive

keii4ii

Mine? Cronaj and Tuyetnhi came across it outside this Discord, I believe!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yep

I have been reading it for a few years now

Although I can't say exactly when, because HoK has been a part of my life for so long

Tuyetnhi

I think I started reading it a year or 2 ago lol

DanitheCarutor

@keii4ii The only nice thing about Webtoons is that there aren't any profiles to check, so you can't look up fans via their comments. Also if you did Google their username there isn't a guarantee whoever you find would be that Webtoons user without them telling you. Lmao! About the thirsty comments, I used to get them a lot of Webtoons. There was this one scene where my smaller MC pulled the taller one to their face to say "Your friend is dead", before shoving him away and walking off. Some of my readers went wild! They wanted the two MCs to make-out so bad, even though the scene clearly had no romantic chemistry... or even the entire comic for that matter. My thirsty bunch came off really desperate and reaching at times.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Omg, that's just precious

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I really have never gotten thirsty comments, with the exception of one or two very mild 'Oh, that character is attractive' comments. But I think my comics just don't really attract thirsty readers. Of course, I rarely get any reader feedback, so that's probably part of it.

keii4ii

@DanitheCarutor Yeah, that's a plus about the semi-anonymity! My screenshots are from less anonymous places, so yeah. Some are also from like... Discord, where the person may not even have expected the comment to be archived in any way. (Sometimes I actually asked if I could screenshot, but I don't know if I asked every time...)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

No one has ever reported finding my characters attractive

Deo101 [Millennium]

People thinking my characters are hot is a pretty common thing, and usually I don't mind but... sometimes it's the bane of my existence.

It's always a little bit weird, though

every time someone is like "dat ass " I'm like alright bud keep it to urself

it's part of why I made all of my characters adults, actually

people even before I started making it, just when I was talking to them about it or showing my art would STILL be overly sexual about my characters so I aged them up where it felt less weird for me.

kayotics

I’ll get thirst comments every once in a while, usually on tapas. I don’t mind it too much, especially since I’m usually making characters that I’m also attracted to? I usually think thirst comments are funny

DanitheCarutor

Pfff I'm in a similar boat to Deo's. Usually I don't mind, but there are moments where it sucks. Like there will be a really serious, or heavy scene and someone will pop up with "Make them kiss!!", "Don't be mean to your future hubby, X! Kiss him and make up!!". It totally feels they don't actually care about the story and just want something to jack it off to. xD I don't get a whole lot of thirst anymore, which is nice. I think the vocal group lost interest after being blue-balled for 3-4 chapters. Weirdest thing, I have yet to get anyone saying my characters are attractive... well, some readers used to say Julian (my questionable looking non-binary character) was pretty but they weren't really thirsty, just observations. At least they came off like that. My style makes characters look kind of ugly, so comments about any of my cast being attractive is non-existent. @keii4ii Ooh yeah, I can see how that would be an issue. Although, if you really want to show off some super nice comments, you can also just cover or blur out their username and icon image. A lot of people do that, it's really good for keeping up the user's anonymity, and I don't think they would mind since you're not using their words slanderously.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Can I admit I sort of wish I got some thirsty and shipping comments? I also draw characters I think are hawt so I kinda wish my readers felt the same way. XD I don’t really want them in Ashes were my characters are teens, but in Eryl where 95% of the cast is legal age, I kinda wish some people wanted to be a little bit thirsty about it. XD

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah, i just wish it wasnt... Idk sometimes it seems like thats ALL people see and it makes me sad

Like theres other stuff going on...

eli [a winged tale]

I feel you too Cap’n! I sort of expected shipping comments for AWT https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/keyspace-a-winged-tale/list?title_no=322364 but yeah they’re still kids discovering themselves! When I start my adult fantasy comic (tentatively planned), then I’m all on board for sure. For the question, I love and screenshot every comment to peruse whenever I feel down. I treasure all of them but one that particularly stood out for me was a writer reimagining all their stories with my art and characters and that just about made me cry happy tears

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

So far the only 'thirst comments' I've gotten are when the comic gets even the slightest bit... gay I can't say my story revolves around major LGBTQ+ themes, but people have picked up on random bits of subtext between characters (which is mostly intentional on my part, not gonna lie) and specifically take time to comment on them. It makes me happy to see people reading between the lines. And it also helps me know what the readers like or are really looking for. So... yeah, I'm gonna keep on that path

eli [a winged tale]

Did I miss that in phantomarine?? Howww

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The subtlest of subtle subtext... which will become far less subtle over time

Nutty (Court of Roses)

i am deliberately pushing my main ship to get ppl into it lmao

YOU WANT THESE TWO TO KISS, I PROMISE

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

GOSH I know this feeling too well I feel like I don't want to overwhelm the readers, but I want them to still realize "...Hmmmmmm, yeah I kinda want this."

eli [a winged tale]

I’m so intrigued now

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

good

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

wait i can't think of anything remotely gay/romantic in phantomarine

besides maybe

phaedra and... cheth?

eli [a winged tale]

The shipping comments in AWT are currently on point at exactly where I want them to be

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i don't believe you would go for that, but shipping enemies is a very common fandom thing

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wish I had more people shipping my characters because I'm all alone in it right now

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@Nutty (Court of Roses) I'm doing the same in Ashes. I'm being super obvious about Anor x Rava being a future couple. XD

So far I haven't really gotten any comments about it. Idk if my readers care about romance at all.

Which is okay, because I don't really write much romance into my comics.

Even though I secretly wish for a bit of shipping from readers.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I have to find out how visibly and obviously gay the characters have to act before people pick up on it

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

sssfrs, your comic just doesn't feel like the kind of comic people would ship characters in, though. Even the relationship between the captain and the guy that left, though lovely, feels, i don't know, too mature to really ship?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

It's not the focus of the plot though so it's not essential just would be fun

Deo101 [Millennium]

people were shipping page 2 for me so idk

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

That's a fair way to look at it

Deo101 [Millennium]

apparently they need to be next to eachother , in my experience

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i think the art style plays a part, too

people were shipping my characters also from page two. But I have a "prettier" style than sssfrs

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yeah, I think the only way readers even know my characters are queer is from the extra art I make of them for Pride month each year. On panel the gay isn't incredibly obvious.

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah, and I do WANT people to ship them so its not like I mind. I like shippers (when they are in line with my plans)

eli [a winged tale]

Yes Deo!! Exactly

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Some characters I think have a great dynamic but I just haven't published enough of the material that shows their chemistry yet so I can't blame anyone for not seeing it

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

^same for me

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

looking forward to seeing that in both your comics!

i follow both

eli [a winged tale]

That’s fair ssfrs I’m all for the slow burn

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

It's true that my goal isn't to make the characters visually attractive and appealing in that way as much as in personality and interactions

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I do keep seeing people leave 1* ratings for Eryl on WT and I can't help but wonder if it's homophobes angry about a character sheet I shared that mentioned the character was lovingly raised by two dads. Bc there has been nothing really controversial on-panel in the comic, and I have such a small audience it has no other reason to keep attracting hate.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

yeah, that's what i was trying to say. couldn't think of a good way to say that though. but i like your art and feel like it fits your story well

( at sssfrs)

i don't think there are a large number of homophobes on WT. If anything, there's an overabundance of the opposite- fetishists

people leave 1 star on WT for random reasons like you not updating enough

don't worry about it

eli [a winged tale]

Link your webcomics? With <> . Love to check them out

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/puppeteer/list?title_no=290620

Deo101 [Millennium]

I get a lot of fetishists, yeah....

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/dark-wings-eryl/list?title_no=287293

Deo101 [Millennium]

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/millennium/list?title_no=110866

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Idk, maybe they don't like that I update in traditional pages, then, Who knows

All I know is every time my ratings start crawling back up, suddenly they'll take a big hit.(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

idk, some people just seem to do that kinda thing

I have thought it could be other creators before, too...

trying to make less competition or something. but that would be cruel and I dont like to think someone would do that

so I prefer to think its just someone who didnt like my stuff

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

eh i prefer to think the best of people

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It's not like I'm super successful or anything. The algorithms haven't been kind to either of my comics so I'm hardly competition.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i'm not going to think it's other creators

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah that's what Im saying

like its popped in my head and then I was like literally who would do that

thatd be reaaaaal messed up

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

hey, how to i add my comic name in paren to my name on this server?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Unfortunately I know a lot of creators who would. They just don't hang out in spaces like these.

Deo101 [Millennium]

just edit your nickname in the options

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Mine is called Joe Is Dead, on here http://joeisdead.com/ and on tapas https://tapas.io/series/JoeIsDead

Deo101 [Millennium]

oh right I actually have another comic. It was on hiatus over a year so I havent gotten into the habit of sharing it...

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yeah, go to the ... next to the server name and it opens up a menu with the 'change nickname' option.

Deo101 [Millennium]

https://tapas.io/series/Time-and-Time-again

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I put the title in my name

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

My other comic is here on WT: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/children-of-shadow-ashes/list?title_no=145048&page=1

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i just don't like dismissing negative feedback. I don't want to get negative reviews and just brush them off as jealous people because i know my comic definitely has room to improve and would rather negative feedback motivate me to look for ways how

got it, thanks!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I love negative feedback. I want to put out the best work I can & hearing what people don't like or don't think is working helps me do that

Deo101 [Millennium]

theres constructive feedback, and then theres people telling me my characters are stupid and I think I can brush the latter off

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Unfortunately, I have been the victim of vicious jealous reviews. I've seen a lot of ugly in the webcomic world over the many years I've been doing this. Some creators be petty.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD) hm if i were to give negative feedback about your comic I'd say the biggest things are that you have a lot of characters that in my mind are kind of hard to differentiate, and also it can be really hard to tell where your characters are in space. But those don't matter too much, as they both will probably get better with time. Your biggest strength imo in your dialogue anyways

keii4ii

Not every negative feedback is relevant to my goals, is key for me. It's the whole "you can't please everyone" principle. My target audience does not include every person out there. If my target audience falls in love with what I make, then that's success for me. I don't need to impress the rest of the world.

keii4ii

(Thanks Tatsu.)

Deo101 [Millennium]

You have a different definition of "negative feedback" than I do.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

who are you referring to?(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

You

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

in what way?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I can usually tell the difference between 'This person has a different idea of what this story should be than I do' and 'This person has it out for me because of jealousy or spite'

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Yeah I've found it really hard to juggle the consistency with where characters are standing all the time. I write out lists of the order they're spatially located in an effort to keep track of them. Hopefully I'll get better with practice

Deo101 [Millennium]

the negative feedback I am talking about is basically straight up hate. Constructive criticism, pointing out the flaws of a work, isnt "negative feedback" by my definition.

so saying "I want negative feedback" means something different for you than it does for me.

i WILL dismiss people being straight up rude to me

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

hm, I feel like a lot of people define negative feedback the same way i do, constructive criticism about what you could do better. If you say you dont want negative feedback you might get people thinking you don't want critique at all. imo what you are referring to might be more clearly just called "hate"

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'll consider it if someone is trying to help, even if most of the time I ignore it

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I also get the random 1 star ratings on Webtoon, so I think some people are just easy to hate stuff(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

yo sssfrs, you keep track of where characters are in space by writing lists??

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

These are probably also the same people who dislike videos habitually on Youtube

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i can't imagine working with that

Deo101 [Millennium]

I actually dont want critique at all.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

it seems so hard

Deo101 [Millennium]

not if I dont ask for it.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Con crit and hate aren't the same thing, though

One is genuinely trying to help you improve, the other is just trying to bring you down.(edited)

And it's okay to not want the former

Deo101 [Millennium]

and I would say "negative feedback" doesnt include con crit

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Just because you make something doesn't mean you have to want people to give crit on it.(edited)

Yeah

I agree, because GOOD con crit is usually polite because if the person knows what they're talking about, they were where you are now and will be nice about it.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

From my experience the best critiques come from other artists doing similar work to you

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i don't think all negative con crit is helpful, either. people also need to know what their strengths are so they know what to keep instead of just what to remove

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

They might not even be trying specifically to be nice about it

But their words feel less hurtful

eli [a winged tale]

I feel like there are comments which are reviews (fair enough, everyone has subjective opinions) but I feel like constructive criticisms should be more private and take place in specific settings (most importantly where the creators are in a position of wanting them)

Nutty (Court of Roses)

@eli [a winged tale] https://courtofroses.spiderforest.com/

eli [a winged tale]

What I think most readers don’t understand or know is that the comic that does make its way to the public quite often has already been through rigorous critique and feedback

Nutty (Court of Roses)

(sorry, was late to that haha, i agree on your feelings about crits)

Deo101 [Millennium]

see, I dont know what you mean by "negative con crit" In my experience, a critique that is negative is not a critique and is more an opportunity for someone to flex.

helpful critiques may FEEL negative, because they are pointing out your flaws, but they arent negative

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i think you're defining "negative" and "hateful" the same way, but other people are not(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

I call them constructive feedback. Then on the other hand, yeah there are negative comments that are there to serve the OP’s sentiments(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I use constructive if it is helpful, and negative if it is harmful

eli [a winged tale]

But I just don’t think the comment platform supports the constructive feedback part. The comments currently represent the OP’s views which are very much subjective. It’s hard to know if they are providing feedback from a place of knowing story structure/art competency

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

critique does mean a lot more when I ask for it from an artist I respect

eli [a winged tale]

Indeed. It’s quite an intimate process

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

but i can still take casual comments into consideration when trying to improve

things like, it's confusing, or i don't understand what's happening

eli [a winged tale]

I think trust in the critiquer’s background and intention for you to improve are imperative(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

speaking of comments that say the comic is confusing, god i hate getting those comments the most. Because they come from people genuinely trying to read and like my comic and represent a failure of my storytelling skills

eli [a winged tale]

Plus there is a skill/art (no pun intended haha) to giving feedback. That’s a whole nother can of worms

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

but better to hear that and know it than not

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It's not always a failure of storytelling skills, though. Some people's brains work along a certain line, and when a story is told that doesn't gel with that, it seems confusing to the person. That doesn't mean the writing was bad, it just means that the author communicates differently than the reader.(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

^ thats what I was gonna say

I have a small group of people who I trust who are editors, writers, or artists. I go to them to see if I'm doing the best I can for my goals.

if people get confused then there isnt too much more that I can do...

not saying my work is perfect, of course...

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i can't just brush it off by saying I communicate differently than the reader when I'm trying to communicate to the reader

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

But not every reader is your audience, though

Nutty (Court of Roses)

^^^^

your message sometimes can't reach certain people, and that's not your fault

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

If all the readers are confused, that's one thing. If only a few are, well, your writing style just wasn't for them.

eli [a winged tale]

For sure. Agree Capn and Deo. There’s a lot of work that goes behind the scenes that readers are unaware

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

true true. But there are a few people who have said the same things, so I've taken those to heart and added dialogue that made it more clear. I don't regret that

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Your comic is public, and it's going to be seen by a very wide variety of people with all different kinds of reading comprehension and tastes. You're never going to appeal to all of hem, and plenty won't understand what you're trying to do. But that doesn't mean what you're making is bad. It just means it, like every story, is for a particular audience.

Yeah, if it's a repeated crit, it is something to keep in mind, but just remember that incorporating a crit shouldn't change what you're trying to do, only refine it.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Ive had a couple people say "I'm confused but Im enjoying whats going on" and I dont even know what I would begin to do about that

eli [a winged tale]

I usually trust my beta readers for that. If there are confusing parts then I would ask them how to clarify that best

I think these creator based forums are best to seek feedback and see what could potentially be remedied

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Of course. And I don't think my comic is bad. But one example was when I realized some confusion stemmed from me having a speech bubble that read, "without her," and didn't realize "her" could refer to two different characters which would make what was being said have two very different meanings. It's easy to overestimate how understandable your story is as an author that already knows everything that's going on. I think confusion is a good thing to pay attention to- I've definitely read comics before and dropped them because the author didn't pay enough attention to introducing things to the audience

(also dropped comics because they paid too much attention to introducig things but)

Deo101 [Millennium]

yes, like I said I have a small group of friends who are all writers, editors, and artists who can give me a pretty dang good beta read.

eli [a winged tale]

They are so great. Don’t know what I’d do without them

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

At that point I'd honestly keep going with what you have - there are several stories I've gone into with confusion, but also greatly enjoyed them, or even got less confused over time. Some readers need time to put the pieces together. So long as someone enjoys it on some level, I think that makes the comic successful. Maybe not completely - but not every comic will be everything to all people.

eli [a winged tale]

Indeed. Sometimes as well you gotta trust your story writing/art skills.

Deo101 [Millennium]

yup!

and like I'm not doing too bad for my first comic so I think I got something going for me at least.

I understand I have room to grow...

but I would like to keep that to people who I trust wont steer me wrong

eli [a winged tale]

Always room to grow for sure!

Deo101 [Millennium]

and arent just pushing what they want from me on me

eli [a winged tale]

Indeed. Feedback/ beta reading has its own set of skills. There’s always places to improve but the key is to determine specifically where that can be and how feasible(edited)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I remember the first time I read Unsounded, I had absolutely no idea what was going on because of how Ashley structures her world-building. But there were aspects of it that were very engaging, so I stuck with it. After finishing the archives, I went back and reread. Now that I understood what all the terms meant, it made perfect sense on the second go-round. It's now one of my favourite webcomics. Some stories are just told differently, and that's okay.(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

There’s certainly an element of trust you must put to the creators that it’ll all make sense at the end

Deo101 [Millennium]

someone got very mad at me for how I have shown my trans characters so far.. I had to explain that the story isnt done yet, and they have to trust I'll bring it up

it's a WIP and there is some trust that NEEDS to be had

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

lol I have only one artist/writer friend (struggles of working in a non-art career), and she understands everything I write exactly as I intended it and I love it. But she's my friend for a reason- we tend to think the same way and read similar things. Don't think it's wrong to try to cater to a wider audience as well

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@Deo101 [Millennium] I wonder if anyone will react once I reveal that Anor is intersex/trans on panel. I'm really hoping I don't find out if any of my readers are transphobes -or- angry that he isn't ostentatiously trans.

Deo101 [Millennium]

someone was mad I didnt show my cyborg transitioning cause it could be so cool of a concept to see his original robot body and I was like literally none of what you said applies to him also thats kinda gross

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Uh

Wut

Deo101 [Millennium]

YEAH

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

There might be some transphobes. But it's worth dealing with them for the people who your comic will resonate with more for having a trans character in it

Deo101 [Millennium]

alsooooo some people might be upset, but then they will leave and you will be left with better people.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

I feel like me having a non-binary character and insisting on correcting everyone who misgenders them deters transphobes away p quickly.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

^^^ some people will dislike, but those who like will really like

and a smaller, better fanbase is better than a larger one that cares less(edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

hear hear

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) I'm hoping some will resonate with him! I don't think I've ever seen any intersex rep in any story, so I really want people to know they can have a hero like them.(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I'm trying to think of stories with intersex rep

I feel like there must be some, but I can't bring any up : /

Sazed from Mistborn is written as though he's intersex, but he clearly identifies as male and the story treating him as intersex actually feels a bit disrespectful

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Me neither. The only thing I've seen in stories is gross 'hermaphrodite' jokes when mocking a cis character.

I really want to give positive representation.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

webcomics have so much lgbt representation. I feel as though I must have seen an intersex character somewhere in there, but I'm not sure I have.(edited)

it feels kind of weird(edited)

I've seen characters that don't have genders because they're gods or whatnot but I feel like that's different

Deo101 [Millennium]

I mean, I have intersex characters I supposed but theyre alien genders so I also think that's different and wouldnt call them intersex

DanitheCarutor

I don't know the whole conversation, but @Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios), you'll be fine! Most transphobic people quietly leave, only the really sad, pitiful ones make a stink and their opinions are pretty laughable. If you get crap laugh in their faces like they're morons. I would also say my character Julian is intersex, but I'm not sure how much it counts since it was a recent decision I made (after doing a lot of research) due to readers headcanoning them as an intersex character.

I think I know of a couple other comics with intersex characters if you want to check out some, lemme go look through my lists.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@DanitheCarutor I'd love to see other comics with intersex representation! And I think Julian totally counts? I don't see a problem with reconsidering a character's sex, gender, or orientation as we become more aware of issues in the world, or even just more aware of our own characters. Webcomics are always a work-in-progress and things change as we go.

eli [a winged tale]

@DanitheCarutor I’d love to know them too!

keii4ii

Re: clarity and confusion, sometimes a small change in wording or such can improve the clarity greatly, and that's great! But I agree that reader confusion doesn't necessarily = failure in storytelling. I've published my comic first in Korean, and a much improved version in English. The cultural difference in the audience has shown to be a huge factor in terms of what's clear and what isn't, or how certain things come across. And that's just one factor.

DanitheCarutor

So I only know of one comic personally, Drop-Out! Sure the characters are anthros, and the bubbles can be hard to read, but it is one of my favorite comics! Of course it's kinda heavy so be aware of that. http://drop-out.thecomicseries.com/ Although I checked out the Webcomic Library tagpacker and found a few. (including Drop-Out) https://tagpacker.com/user/webcomic.library?t=Intersex LGBT Webcomics also has a few that aren't listed in the above list. https://tagpacker.com/user/lgbtwebcomics?t=intersex @Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) Lol yeah, I guess so. My readers made me put a lot of thought into it, and after the research being intersex actually fits a lot better with Julian's type of gender dysphoria and confusion than when they were AAB male. It also make some small, more intimate parts of the story feel more natural? It's hard to explain, it just feels better.(edited)

keii4ii

Like, making my work as accessible as possible has never been a goal for me with this story. So to me, it's not a failure that a large number of people can't see parts of the story that aren't being spelled out. I can totally respect "I want my work to be more accessible, so if all these people are not Getting It, then I need to do a better job" as a valid stance. Just not one I'm taking. It's all about individual goals and priorities.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh boy, writing a fantasy story with a very developed culture is kinda scary, because NOBODY is going to pick up on cultural nuances except for me(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I DO want my work to be more accessible/reach a wider audience, but that still doesnt mean it will be for everyone, too.(edited)

keii4ii

Not gonna lie, I get a little salty when I see someone claiming their story is "for everyone." I feel like such a claim is disrespectful to different cultures and tastes.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i just started drop out and damn, that's one hell of an opening

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I genuinely don't think it's possible to make a story for everyone lol

like... idk literally just by making it "sci fi" that excludes many people who just don't like sci-fi

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i've never seen anyone claiming their story is for everyone

Deo101 [Millennium]

I feel like just to get to your premise, not even your personal execution you're already super narrowing the people down who will be interested

which is fine!!! and is necessary to accept imo

keii4ii

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) I've seen it. Not often but I've definitely seen it.

I've even seen a creator accuse another person of being heartless because the person was not interested in their Very Emotional And Universally Heartfelt comic, so uhhh yeah

Deo101 [Millennium]

Ope

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Well then

That just sounds like an illusioned creator

Deo101 [Millennium]

I kinda like to think of it like music

I dont like a lot of songs that other people love, it's not that they're bad songs just... not for me(edited)

keii4ii

Yeah! I also think the word "taste" is very fitting

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah for sure

keii4ii

Some of us can eat ghost peppers like popcorns. Others would even avoid like... crackled black pepper

Deo101 [Millennium]

ahahhahaha

mac n cheese has a very wide audience, but some people aren't into it

DanitheCarutor

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Lmao! Drop-Out is quite a unique piece of fiction. I have also seen creators who say their comic is for everyone, then get made when someone isn't interested.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'm gonna start saying millennium is like mac n cheese now

keii4ii

@Deo101 [Millennium] That reminds me of "what drink would your comic be" !!

Deo101 [Millennium]

ahahahahah

someone: my comic is WATER EVERYONE NEEDS IT

keii4ii

I answered: "I want HoK to be liquid bacon fat, so that it'll stay in your heart forever."

Deo101 [Millennium]

ew LMAO

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

even if your comic is water, some people don't drink water

Deo101 [Millennium]

but cute? I gues????

DanitheCarutor

That sounds like a fun game, "If your comic were food what would it be?"

Mine would be sardine pizza, only weirdos like it.

Deo101 [Millennium]

next weeks creator babble question

LMSLDJGLASJGK

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@DanitheCarutor its got such good art. The characters are so unique and expressive. Don't think I've seen anyone not use anti-aliasing on such detailed art before, but it works here

almost all webcomics are some weird food. We're niche just by nature

DanitheCarutor

It DOES have great art! And it gets better as you go too, by the time I reached the end then looked back on the first pages for nostalgia it was almost like night and day with the quality.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

fuck, really? but it's so polished already

DanitheCarutor

I mean, I guess that's not something to get excited about, most webcomics get better artwise as they go. Lmao! But still!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i love how the about page makes this sound like a fun roadtrip adventure

Deo101 [Millennium]

this feels mayble like the wrong chat for this discussion?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

My comic would be a latte: A lot of people like it, but some people will never like coffee.

keii4ii

I can imagine HoK being like Chung Gook Jang soup? It's 1) Korean, 2) it warms you up, 3) it is very polarizing even among Koreans. It's kinda like... imagine miso soup on ultra mega steroid. Like a vegan version of supersharp stinky cheese. And 4) I love it.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

im alphabet soup because i have a fuckton of dialogue

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'm actually gonna stick with mac n cheese. a bit childish, but it's nice! you can do some fun things with it to shake things up, but it's still cheese and noodles.

keii4ii

Mac n cheese is amazing.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I love mac n cheese.

another reason why it's my comic! I love it, and it's something I can actually make

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

As for food, WotP would definitely something like authentic Mexican tacos. Again, generally well-received, but can be a bit intense for a lot of people

keii4ii

I really like food analogies. Sometimes it's not Gordon Ramsey you're trying to impress. Sometimes you want to make something you and/or your loved ones will enjoy, and if that's "WAY too much [ingredient]!!!!" for everyone else out there, that's not a flaw!

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah! :D

keii4ii

That's actually good food for thought (no pun intended): what niche aspects does your comic contain? How/why are they niche?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) How do you do it?

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I think I once described mine as a corrupted tropical cocktail. On the surface: sweet, pretty, very colorful - but all the ingredients used to make it are rotten

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I thought of Cricket as intersex for a long time and I still don't know exactly where I stand on that.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I draw a diagram of where characters/ furniture are from above. Niche things: Most conflicts are resolved through anticlimactic conversation. Also there's this huge bit about consensual mind control. I wrote the comic I'd want to read, and somehow found a few people like me to follow along

I also usually don't have more than 2 characters interacting

so it's easier for me

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I have so many busy group scenes with people moving around. The most recent chapter was kind of a mess also because I wasn't really sure about the dimensions of the space they were all in

This scene was also pretty rushed in general

Re: intersex characters I feel like I've been shying away from that because I don't feel like I know enough about the topic to adequately represent intersex people

Joe Is Dead has a really specific aesthetic to it but I don't know how to define that niche. It's definitely something

Deo101 [Millennium]

I honestly could not answer that question about what niche things my comic contains. I don't know what about my comic is mainstream or not, I'm just making what I want to see and not really worrying about stuff like that.

keii4ii

For me, having an idea of what's niche about my comic actually lessens my worries!

It's a "okay, so I know these things are niche, which means people not liking or even getting those things =/= my failure!" kinda thing for me!

But I can also see how not thinking about what's niche or not can lessen the worries for others, too.

Deo101 [Millennium]

mhm, for me it means I can just go "well I like it anyways sooooooooo"

keii4ii

Yeah, that's the destination! We're just taking different routes to get there

Deo101 [Millennium]

I also genuinely just have a hard time determining whether or not something is niche

even if I thought about it for a while (I've been thinking about it since you asked, and I have thought about it before" I genuinely couldnt pinpoint it for you...

keii4ii

I used to beat myself up very badly every time someone didn't like a thing about my comic

Deo101 [Millennium]

D:

keii4ii

and "oh, 1) this is subjective, 2) I like it like this, and 3) my liking of it is valid" was how I crawled out of that hole

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't know if my comic is specifically niche, unless you count "low fantasy" (or essentially fantasy with less magic and such) as niche

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My comic has a lot of specific nautical and history content that you could call niche

Also surrealism

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i would call Joe Is Dead "niche," but not WoTP

I've read both

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I... used to think my comics weren't niche. Ohohohohoho how wrong I was!

Deo101 [Millennium]

Id say millennium isnt niche then it's basically just gay sci fi it's p straightforward

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

My comics are very, incredibly, undeniably niche.

DanitheCarutor

@sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD) It is difficult to understand if you're not intersex yourself, even though I studied a lot before making the decision about my character I still don't know if I'll represent the topic properly. The best you can really do is get into researching all the medical stuff, talk to people willing to share their experiences with being intersex, and watch videos of people talking about it from a professional and personal perspective. The hardest thing to get right about something so subjective and personal is that everyone's experiences are different, so no matter how much you research you just gotta do your best with the info you have, then figure out how your character would experience it personally.(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't think anything magical happens until Chapter 11 of WotP, now that I think about it

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Also @DanitheCarutor thank you for the links!! I'll have to give those comics a look!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’m still backreading and I just saw the food question, that is great

JID would be saltcod

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Ooooh

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Or like pickled herring maybe

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Bacalao

Noice

(Bacalao = Puerto Rican salted cod)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

They have it in spain too iirc

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Ashes would be very bitter black coffee someone forgot to drink and it's just been sitting there for two days. Eryl would be well-aged wine spiked with tabasco sauce.

DanitheCarutor

Sorry for derailing. Anyways, I feel like my entire comic is just a ball of niche? The subject matters are uncommon and the main characters are awful and unreliable, but that's my aesthetic so I'm sticking to it. I've never particularly cared about people liking my comic due growing up not being liked myself (you kinda get over it after a while), but I do like finding people like me. @Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) No problem! I hoard stuff like that, so I probably have a link for everything.

Urm, I don't mean I like finding unlikable people like me, I mean people who like the same types of stories as me.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Honestly, Dani, I connect to your comic quite a lot, for what it's worth!

DanitheCarutor

Thank you! ;v; In a way it's kind of nice having a comic that doesn't fit in. It tends to stand out, especially with my choice of medium. Although at the same times it's really hard to get feedback that applies to what you're doing! Arg!

keii4ii

It is such a Struggle, for sure -- getting relevant feedback

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I feel you! I'm in the same boat with Ashes. It's also incredibly niche and there just aren't that many pencil comics out there- coloured or graphite.

DanitheCarutor

Being a creator who likes feedback, but also likes making niche content, is so hard! Why can't everyone like niche content??

Lmao!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

As niche as the setting and tone of Joe Is Dead are, the main story arc is a very generic hero adventure thing that I hope will appeal to wide audiences

eli [a winged tale]

Niche content

I’d love to know more! What niches are you exploring?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

The nicest thing anyone's said about Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/ is that they really became invested in the characters. Like, that's the kind of story I want to make - the kind where the characters really stick with you.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

As for what food my comic would be... I'd say squid ink pasta. It's the kind of food that makes you go "what the heck is going on here" if you're new to it, but once you actually eat it you'll (hopefully) go "oh, that made way more sense than i expected and was actually pretty tasty"

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I don't know if you're talking to me directly but I'm using a lot of maritime history and literature stuff that I've been obsessed with for a long time as the setting of the story, and then the whole thing has a really morbid and nihilistic tone, while also somehow being funny because I have a background in comedy/satire writing

And then heavy biblical themes

It's essentially a Renaissance period retelling of the Joseph story from the bible

With pirates instead of shepherds

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

For me, I’m not even sure what niche Ashes belongs to. (https://www.flowerlarkstudios.com/cos/) It’s dark, it’s weird, it has a twisty plot that slowly trickles information, and it’s an odd mash-up of genres. I often try to describe it as Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children meets Farthing Wood. It’s mostly urban fantasy with some horror elements and talking animals. Basically it’s about a bunch of unaging teenagers with supernatural, angel-gifted powers and a bunch of woodland critters fighting (although so far it’s more running from) eldritch monsters. But it’s main focus is on each character battling either mental illness or some other kind of inner demon.

keii4ii

There's also the aspect of: what's niche in one culture may not be niche in another. In Korean media, Fantastical Old Korea is a very common setting for all sorts of genres: gag a day, romance, all-ages adventure, gritty crime drama, zombie apocalypse, you name it. If the work spends a lot of visuals showing mundane everyday moments, often that's a shorthand for "sit down and stay a while; this is a heartfelt tale that takes its time." My comic uses such a setting. When I began to publish it in English, I was surprised that people were expecting it to be one of these AND NOTHING ELSE: a) exciting magical action adventure b) mythology-driven, all about gods and spirits My comic is neither of those. It definitely contains elements of adventure, but that's the plate the meat is served on, not the meat itself. So I guess the usage of the setting is niche.

Like, imagine a civilian life drama set in WWII time. The civilian MC may have a family member or a close friend in the military, but the story focuses on the MC's experience. Imagine presenting that story and people expect it to be... military action? Not a perfect analogy, but hopefully a good enough one.

Kelsey (Kurio)

To be fair, Korea would find fantastical old Korea less exotic than those outside of Korea heh

keii4ii

That is definitely a factor. Even today, you can find semi-Old Days-like places IRL within like... 3 hours of drive.

I'm weirded out that my culture is considered exotic, but it is what it is

(To clarify, weirded out =/= offended.)

Kelsey (Kurio)

Well any culture can be exotic to people outside of that culture

As an outsider looking in, it can be fascinating to learn about a culture I don't know much about

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Anything unfamiliar is usually considered exotic. I know in both England and America, I never really learned anything about any Asian country growing up. I had to seek out the info myself, and as it was very unfamiliar to me, it seemed exotic!

Kelsey (Kurio)

Especially their myths and stories

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Oops, exactly what Kelsey said, I typed too slow.

keii4ii

Yeah, the thing is I've been told I should not be using this setting to tell this story because it's a doomed combination. But ehh, I decided not to listen to that. This story with this setting and all of its elements is what I wanted to read.

carcarchu

slice of life set in a historical setting sounds really refreshing actually(edited)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

But I know I’d probably feel strange if someone told me New York was exotic!

carcarchu

sometimes historical settings can get really bogged down by politics and whatever other drama, having a quiet slow paced story set in the same kind of world is something i'd be interested in reading

Kelsey (Kurio)

Nothing wrong with trying the approach you want to

Who knows, you might end up with a unique combo that helps your work stand out

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yup. I’m a firm believer in writing the kind of story you’d want to read. No matter how niche.

Tuyetnhi

Totes agreed on this. For me, when I had to drop my dark drama series for my romance story, folks were like "Dang, I thought you like writing dark things!"

I do, but romance comics.... [clenches chest]. I also want to write a story that I want to read so lmao. Dream lover elements along with some dark horror influences is something I want to try doing lol

carcarchu

this is not a webcomic but try reading coelacanth if you're interested in the combination of horror with romance @Tuyetnhi

Tuyetnhi

ooo I'll keep that in mind

carcarchu

it's really so unique i love coelacanth so much

Tuyetnhi

is it a novel? :0

carcarchu

it's a manga

Tuyetnhi

aaa

Yeah I probably check it out sometime lmao

back on the idea tho, I also wanted to add some Vietnamese influences in the mix since there's not a lot of stories about Vietnamese disapora, so that's included in the cauldron lol

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@keii4ii what's your comic? I wanna check it out(edited)

keii4ii

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) It's https://heartofkeol.com/

(I get extremely nervous whenever I know someone is checking out my comic for the first time )

DanitheCarutor

To answer @eli [a winged tale] question. I'm delving into stuff like mental illnesses and disorders, medical illnesses, abuse, trauma and later on, self-care. The comic itself is slow and character centric, I guess you can say it's like a character study. The story can be really depressing depending on who is reading, and it has some softcore horror bits sprinkled in. I'm kind of a nerd for mental health, sad stuff and everything medical so I figured I may as well make a story embellishing those interests. In short it's a sad, character driven, psychological drama about two extremely flawed individuals. Not particularly exciting compared to all the other webcomics out there, but somebody has to make that one pretentious, psychological slice of life piece.

keii4ii

What compounds my issues is that my comic does have enough adventure elements for someone to mistake it for an underwhelming adventure story. "This is an adventure story but there's not enough adventure in it?" kinda thing.

@DanitheCarutor Character studies FTW!!! Yours has been on my 'gotta check this out' list for a long time now!

Tuyetnhi

Oooo

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I also am a fan of psychological stories

Especially if they're sad(edited)

Tuyetnhi

Kei idk why but I was reminded of .hack SIGN when u said that

"there's so much talking! where's the action?!?"

keii4ii

@Tuyetnhi That's actually not a terrible comparison -- though .hack//SIGN has other issues that my comic hopefully doesn't have XD

Tuyetnhi

I'm pretty sure it's miles better than that old anime lmao

DanitheCarutor

@keii4ii Pff I need to check out your comic too! I remember reading it at one point, but I don't remember what happened to make me lose track. From what little I remember I really liked it.

keii4ii

The thing with .hack//SIGN was it had a lot of promises of mystery that never went anywhere, within SIGN. I've heard those mysteries do go somewhere within the franchise, but you had to watch/read the entire franchise, which I wasn't going to do. I hope my comic will be a good read on its own, when finished.

Tuyetnhi

sadly, I was one of those suckers that went to consume the .hack games and mangas to get some context from SIGN in the late 2000's lmao

I hope the same as mine, despite being mostly saccharine and self-indulgent nature lmao

keii4ii

Self-indulgence is a strength of indie comics.

eli [a winged tale]

I love all the themes y’all explore! They’re so important

Tuyetnhi

I feel like I have a reason for everything when working on that comic but if that's what it boils down to, I'll take it lol

keii4ii

TBH I produce my best writing and art when I focus on pleasing myself.

Because if I'm trying to please others, I don't even know what they want, so I waste my energy panicking.

But when I'm creating for my inner reader, I can be self-critical in a productive manner!

Tuyetnhi

so true ya

RebelVampire

Hey guys. I kind of feel as this has deviated a smidgen too far from the topic, so maybe reel it in just a smidgen. XD(edited)

Desnik

so the nicest thing anyone's ever said about my comic is that they wanna read more :3

I kinda dread reader dropoffs so the will to see the whole story through fills me with joy

[homestuckexamination]

Homestuck: Execution of a Masterpiece - Part 1 - What’s in a Game?

Whenever people ask a Homestuck fan what Homestuck is all about, or why they should read it, the vast majority of people expects a roundabout response. It’s weird and complicated, some say. You have to read it to understand it. There’s this notion that Homestuck is an inscrutable work that requires hours upon hours to get any enjoyment out of it, and this school of thought is only reinforced by Homestuck’s slow beginning. People love Homestuck, but while the first Acts serve as a great introduction to the Setting, people tend to remember and get excited by things happening later on. Where are the Trolls? Some say, already knowing the existence of these characters. Is this the right Webcomic? Was another typical question tossed around before the Viz Media redesign removed any shred of doubt regarding the comic. A lot of people outside of the Fandom hesitate to get into it, whether it be the Length, stories they may have heard about the Fans, or thinking it’s all Nonsense.

And yet, whatever it is you personally believe about Homestuck, its notoriety on the Internet speaks of there being... Something more to it. Something interesting enough to keep over a Million users checking the website daily at its height. Something interesting enough to Crash Newgrounds and partially Megaupload, Youtube, and other services with a single major update. You may not know what that is, specially with the paradoxically self-deprecating attitude a lot of the people in the Fandom have taken. With the Hiatuses and the Ending, a lot of people have left Homestuck behind, and yet you may still see people occasionally mentioning missing it, following certain Livebloggers of the comic, or creating/reblogging Fanart. Even those who didn’t enjoy the ending, as things have settled down, still remember the story fondly, and while going through a bit of a hiccup currently, Hiveswap has sparked interest in the story anew.

So the question is, of course. What makes Homestuck good? Why did it captivate so many people if it really is cryptic and confusing? Or was it just a passing fad? Is there any actual veracity to these claims? Today, I am going to explain what’s captivating about this Webcomic, and then go through the entirety of the story showcasing turning points for the narrative and how they are executed in this Modern Shakespearean Odyssey. Be warned, there will be Spoilers, but I will try to confine them to the second half of this post.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

So let’s preface this addressing the big elephant in the room. 

What IS Homestuck?

Even fans of the Webcomic may not be able to tell you specially well what it actually IS. It’s a Webcomic... But it’s not in a Comic Format, it’s more like a Choose your Own Adventure Game... But you don’t actually Choose anything... It’s been likened to Ulysses, as well as a Shakespearean Play. It’s been talked about as a Creation Myth by the author, as well as just ‘A Webcomic about Friends who Play a Game’, and a Webcomic about a Game in general.

Add to this the length and narrative shifts that occur through the story, and the ever-growing complexity of the narrative spanning through the entirety of the comic, and you have a metatextual behemoth the likes the Internet had never seen before. Perhaps bits and pieces of it, but not all together, and definitely not to such an extensive degree. But it really is not as difficult to understand as it may seem. All you need to do, is assess the Author’s prior works, and his intent with with his work, as well as Homestuck.

Before Homestuck.com was a thing, the website hosting Homestuck was Mspaintadventures. You can still read his old adventures, obviously, but back in the day Homestuck wasn’t specifically the focus- Rather, it was just the latest in a series of experimental stories Hussie had been working on. Going even further back in time, before MSPA was a thing, Hussie also worked on other things. ‘And It Don’t Stop’, and ‘Whistles the Midnight Calliope’ are stories Hussie created and illustrated, ‘Complacency of the Learned’ was a dropped project of his, and even further back he was part of a comic series at Team Special Olympics... Which. Was as awful as it sounds. And yet it’s thanks to these rather awful beginnings that we can begin assessing Homestuck in a clearer light.

The biggest key to being funny is to not be a dumbass. Really stupid people have a hard time being funny (intentionally). The smarter you are, the better the odds you have of being funny. Note that sometimes you run into really smart people who aren't funny, or lack a sense of humor. But note, this is VERY STRONG evidence that they are not nearly as smart as they appear to be! In my view at least.

When I equate humor as a product of intelligence, I mean it is primarily a product of awareness. The more you are aware of, and the more insight you have into a myriad of things, the more you will be able to successfully illuminate absurdity, and the more clever ways to accomplish this you will be able to conceive of. Awareness lends itself to an agile imagination. This is why stupidity is such comedic poison. Awareness of the world and that from which you draw your satirical muse is deadened by the mind-blunting forces that are associated with stupidity. These forces primarily are a lack of concentration and dedication, and inalertness to all that surrounds you and all content you are exposed to. As well as being quick to judge and label whatever does manage to get through the pinhole. Those are brain killers and comedy killers. They lead to hackneyed work at best, and incredibly awful, prejudicial, bigoted stuff at worst.

Now I don't mean to say I'm a real smart guy and that's why I'm funny, or EVEN VICE VERSA. I'm just pointing out that, in thinking back, becoming less obtuse and deepening my understanding of as much as possible was a turning point in beginning to understand what is and isn't funny. 

I just try to make sure every page has some purpose, whether it's just funny or amusing, or advances the story in some way. The most important page is always the one I'm working on. I never put out pages just to take up space or kill time.

I think if a story manages to be a succession of meaningful, entertaining events, then that fluidity happens automatically.

I am making the kind of thing I would want to read. I am making the kind of thing I wish existed, but doesn't. Yet.

I write it because I enjoy it and assume everyone else will take pity on those who don't.

Back when MSPA first launched, the featured story was Jailbreak. A simplistic CYOA story about a dude trying to escape a prison, that allowed readers to submit commands. Once Jailbreak was finished, Hussie began Bard Quest, which followed up on Jailbreak’s spirit, but with multiple branching options. This proved to be too much for Hussie to keep track of, sadly, and ended up dropping the story. Then we move on to Problem Sleuth, a story that spanned the entirety of a Year, about Hard Boiled Detectives. In a similar way to Jailbreak, Hussie allowed people to submit commands and started to showcase more of his style and special brand of humor. Towards the end of Problem Sleuth however, Hussie knew how he wanted to end the story, and began to cherry pick the commands and even make them up entirely so that he could give the story the ending he wanted.

And this brings us to Homestuck, after Problem Sleuth was finished. Homestuck’s development is, in a way, an antithesis of Problem Sleuth. With Problem Sleuth, Hussie learned about the shortcomings of CYOA Webcomics, and got some more insight on the genre. So when Homestuck began, he already had a story in mind, but allowed people to submit commands, to explore the world he’d already crafted. As such, things that would be out of character or disrupt the story in a way he didn’t agree with were humored as intrusive thoughts. The first few Acts are a tug of war, between the Author wanting to push the story in the direction he envisioned, and the Audience having a degree of control over the characters in ways that bring new interesting ideas and possibilities. This is what makes the first Act feel like a drag for some people. They have been told about the story when it’s already going in the direction the author wants, but the beginning is a playful back and forth of narrative forces. It starts silly. It starts comedic. And it retains the comedy through all of it. But at the start, the lack of any concrete setting or storyline make everything feel like absurdist tomfoolery. 

It’s those who enjoy this style or bear through it and get hooked on by the many plot hooks afterwards that learn there’s something more to the story, and this is what creates the divide between people within the Fandom and people Outside of it.

But this didn’t exactly answer the question did it? WHAT is Homestuck really? 

Homestuck is a cultural amalgamation, and a way for Hussie to expose his inner world while improving as a person. Many people have attacked Hussie and Homestuck because of his work at Team Special Olympic, and the use of a few slurs- Namely the R word, through the first Acts of Homestuck, and while it’s commonly used up to Act 5, it falls in desuse afterwards. People outside of the circle see this and would argue that most of the comic uses slurs- However, the first Acts were made in a very small span of time, compared to how long Act 6 took to make. It was also an issue people had less awareness of back then. The further you get into the story, the more it touches upon very real themes, psychological issues, identity, orientation.

From the point of the Story itself, Homestuck is an intense Cultural Remix of old and new, mixture of Classical Themes with Pop Culture, touching everything from the Philosophy of Existentialism and Gnosticism to joking about the Obama Presidency. It’s Hussie, as a complex author, creating an intricate Multiverse with intriguing mechanics that draws inspiration from everything from Religious currents to Dragon Ball Z and Earthbound. But from the point of the Author, Homestuck is the exposition of themes Hussie feels are interesting to share with an audience, as he grows to understand more about the world around him, learns from his mistakes, and creates a work he would want everyone to enjoy.

And since it spanned a period of Seven Years, the themes it touches, the culture it reaches to, and the way Hussie himself behaves, slowly shift through the entirety of the narrative. You can see the growth, of both Homestuck and the Author, both in the art style and in the narrative, as time goes on. This is why Homestuck is so hard to pin-point and explain, because it could very well seem two entirely different stories at two different randomly picked spots. And yet, at the same time, it’s the way Homestuck evolves and grows that captivates many people, the way a simple story becomes something much more grand and intense.

And while this showcases what Homestuck IS, it definitely leaves a much more important question in the air...

What is Homestuck ABOUT?

Because of the same reasons discussed above, the very story of Homestuck seems ever-shifting depending on how deep in you are. Some people simply mention Act 1, trying to avoid Spoilers- The story about the protagonist, John Egbert, and his group of Online Friends, who play a Game together, which leads to unforseen consequences. Others will try to dig deeper into the story, but without giving specific details, perhaps teasing about some events later on in the story, or commenting about Time Travelling, but leaving it ambiguous and difficult to understand. Others may straight up decide to spoil a Plot Point in hopes of hooking their friends into the story, and yet, without the context of the rest of the comic behind it, the Plot Hook simply doesn’t stick as well as it should, and at worst, even makes others believe the story to be Ridiculous or Nonsensical.

Hussie himself has described the comic in various different ways through the years, with the most prominent two explanations being A Comic about Online Friends who Play a Game, and A Comic about Games. And you can see both of these being true through the entirety of Homestuck, the narrative does indeed begin with Kids playing a Game, and said Game is the very core of the Setting, around which the conflict revolves. At the same time, the Comic takes upon game-like characteristics, having an in-Universe inventory system the Kids mess around with, and draws themes from many other games- Building like in the Sims, a RPG-like levelling up system, and even going as far as to include Easter Eggs, Cheat Codes, Glitches and Corruptions occasionally. Homestuck makes fun of Video Game Tropes, while at the same time embracing them for its own purposes, whether it be to create a plot point or to add some comedic messing around with inventory management.

Because of this Videogame Style, too, and the Game the protagonists play, the author manages to combine a Modern Setting with Sci-Fi elements, and further digs into it with Fantasy themes. Magic and Science mix confusingly, Game Mechanics raise questions about Reality itself and Free Will, and yet in turn also allow for an incredible degree of Customization and Self-Insertion.

Through its parody of Videogames and its draw from multiple cultures, Homestuck builds one of its biggest strengths in its Versatility. It presents core ideas that become rational parts of the narrative, and allow the story to take any twist and turn imaginable without being far-fetched. People loved making theories about the direction of the story, people still make stories about the story, people love to make their own characters and include them in the setting, insert themselves. And it works! Because the Setting is Hyper-Flexible and allows for people to work with a solid foundation that spans so many fun things!

In turn, however, this also becomes one of the story’s biggest flaw when it comes to drawing in new people- The density of the story is such that most people will find something intriguing and interesting, and yet, people will find different things interesting and intriguing. So someone may read the first few Acts, and not get hooked, even though if they kept reading they would enjoy it! Conversely, others enjoyed the first few Acts, but perhaps missed some plot point along the way, or took a break and forgot something, causing confusion about later events and not letting them enjoy the setting as much as they should be. Homestuck is not a story for everyone. It has something for everyone, and it has an incredible amount of appeal to a number of different demographics, but because of this, there’s a divide among ‘when the good stuff begins’. This creates expectations- They will say the first Acts are bad, and then someone will read them and find them Hilarious and Charming. They will claim certain characters are the best and they can’t wait for their friend to get to them- But their friend fell in love with another set of characters, and now they want to skim over the thing the other was so in love with to get back to the action. Ultimately, this shouldn’t matter- If you think you’d enjoy Homestuck for what it is, it’s a great story with amazing characters. But within the Fandom, this creates a disparity on what parts of the story are good/bad/better/worse, and as such, may put off people who would otherwise love certain aspects of it.

Regardless of whether they enjoy it now or later, whether they enjoy it overall or don’t find enjoyment, Homestuck is what it is. An Hyperflexible Narrative about a Group of Friends playing a Game, parodying popular Game Tropes and getting more Intricate as time goes on, always dangling a new plot thread in front of the audience without providing all the answers, giving enough to keep their attention, but not enough to spoil them. Foreshadowing future events that, when happen, click in your head and make you realize how far back everything goes, and how everything is intertwined. It’s a crazy, often silly comedy. And in my opinion? It’s something people should give a try if they have the slightest bit of interest in.

There’s no shame in dropping the story at any point if you’re not enjoying it after all. Homestuck is long, and if you’re not liking it it’s okay to let it be and just think it’s not for you. But if it grabs you? It grabs you hard, and it makes you want more. 

And while the story and the mechanics and the narrative it presents are incredibly intriguing and rather deep, there’s also something everyone who likes Homestuck enjoys.

The Characters

One of the biggest draws in Homestuck, people will often mention, are the Characters. The group of main friends, along with everyone presented afterwards, some are more relatable than others, but ultimately they’re all enjoyable in some way. Hussie himself once said that he disliked writing characters he didn’t personally enjoy on some level. And you can see this even with the simplest of one-shot characters. They’re complex and flawed, and often come to either realize their own mistakes, or have someone else showcase their rights and wrongs. Their interests, their interactions with others, it creates for multi-dimensional characters that often feel like real people, which stick to a set of values and a type of personality.

This is magnified by the concept of the Hero Titles, what would be Homestuck’s equivalent to someone choosing a ‘Rogue’ or a ‘Paladin’ in a game. They don’t show up until later on, but even in the earlier acts these Titles give more context to the Characters’ personalities and what they did and what they will do next. And they can be applied to pretty much everything, even characters outside of Homestuck and even to yourself! Yet another layer of customization that keeps people interested in the setting, specifically because many Titles are left rather ambiguous. Flexibility is, once again, the name of the game.

And speaking of Flexibility? The characters in Homestuck are designed with Headcanon Flexibility in mind. The art style is often symbolic and rather undefined. Characters are represented by loose shapes, by their Symbols and their Colors, rather than a specific look, which has led to artists drawing them in all sorts of ways! All characters are, canonically, Aracial, a blank slate to project upon, and even the hair color is more often seen as ‘dark’ or ‘light’ rather than necessarily Black or White. Sure, Hussie slips some times because he has his own headcanons, calling babies ‘pink’ at times or mentioning about someone being ‘white’, but ultimately? Race, Height, Body Type, is often left ambiguous and shifts heavily, specially when Guest Artists begin to show up. And yet, whenever you see a specific character being interpreted in one way? It doesn’t matter what the artist’s specific Headcanons are, you can still tell they’re them. People will joke about certain characters being similar to each other with this symbolic style, but the fact you can always recognize them in fanart is a testament to their Design.

Ultimately

Homestuck is a weird and unique story, which is why it’s drawn so many people to it. Everything about it is a progression, an evolution. The Art Style improves as it goes on. The narrative gets more complex and gains more depth, building up from the very same base it started with. The characters grow and change through the story, facing relatable issues and inter-personal problems. The author gains more awareness, betters himself, grows as a person, and it reflects on the story and the themes it touches. A silly story about a group of Online Friends. A tale of self-improvement. A Creation Myth about what the author thinks is Right and Wrong. A collage of Classic and Popular Media combined in a new-age medium. A LGBT-positive tale with quite strong representation specially late-game representation. A versatile tale to entice people to get involved in the Fandom in one way or another.

It is not perfect. But it doesn’t need to be. It’s constantly pushing the boundaries that define it and experimenting, shifting in its angle and becoming more in tune with the issues in the world. A story about Hope and Change, a series of enigmas presented with just enough puzzle pieces missing to make you wonder and theorize, but not enough that things become frustratingly obtuse.

That is why Homestuck is so hard to define. That is why so many people enjoy Homestuck and have stuck with it for so long. And that is, if you think you would enjoy this silly narrative, why, you too should read Homestuck! Maybe it doesn’t stick! Maybe you simply don’t enjoy the style, and that’s fair.

But if you do enjoy it and follow through? It can and will shift your perspective on so many things.

Also, if you’re worried about not getting some of the Pop Culture references, like movies and such, don’t worry- I didn’t get half of them back in the day, and what they did was actually make me interested in movies I would’ve had no interest in whatsoever otherwise.

I’m specially looking at you, Con Air.

[art-little-nonsense]

Tagged by @fireolin

Thank you, dear! This was fun to do :D

Rules: Answer 30 questions. Tag 10 blogs you want to get to know better.

Nickname(s): joolita

Gender: cis girl

Sign: Virgo

Height: 160 cm, give or take (5'2)

Current time: 0:58 AM

Favorite band(s): Aah, there are so many bands i like… Off the top of my head it’s Walk the Moon. Chvrches, The Naked and Famous, and Queen.

Favorite solo artist(s): Do composers count? If so then Christopher Tin, Harry Gregson-Williams and John Williams (if it weren’t for the latter i probably wouldn’t have survived high school). If composers don’t count then Annie Lennox and Rae Morris.

Song stuck in my head: Star Trek Next Gen theme song

Last movie I saw: Kingdom of Heaven, director’s cut, for perhaps the 7th time. I do know the movie is so historically inaccurate it hurts (even the clothes, aaaargh!), and objectively middling in terms of plot, but i just… like it a lot. I am not without sin.

Last show I watched: Steven Universe. And now i have questions.

When did I create my blog: In January 2018

What do I post: My so-called art, which turns out to be mainly hunter x hunter fanart or original stuff, or gifts for my friends

Last thing I googled: ‘kyoto central post office opening times’. I am a certified bore.

Do I have other blogs: Yes! My main blog is our-little-nonsense. I share it with my buddy Munen, my partner in worldbuilding and storytelling crimes. We reblog anything and everything. The blog is a trashcan. But it’s the sort of trashcan i feel comfortable in.

We also have a separate sideblog dedicated to our webcomic. It’s called raguscorner. It’s mostly comic doodles and update notifications. I should probably give it more love at some point…

Do I get asks: This one is a first!

Why did I choose my url: I wanted it to match the main url invented by Munen, bc the art thing is a sideblog and i cannot really like posts (or so i believe), but i still wanted ppl to recognise me (i am too lazy to have a proper second blog. Two dashes full of funny cats would ruin my chances of ever getting any work done).

Following: On my main i follow 160 blogs. The number is rapidly growing :D

Followed by: 33! Thank you all for putting up with my infrequent updates and weird content!

Average hours of sleep: I’d like to say 8, but it’s more like either 4ish or 12ish. The world refuses to accept that i am a creature of the night, insisting on my participation in bleak affairs called ‘mornings’.

Lucky number: I don’t really have one.

Instruments: My hand eye coordination is so rubbish that anything more complex than, say, the triangle, is probably above my skills. So no :)

What I’m wearing: PJs. I am a disgrace to humanity.

Dream job: I suppose that full-time-comic-artist-working-on-their-own-project-untouched-by-corporate-greed is the dream, but i am pretty satisfied with my job as a translator specialising in academic works on anthropology and the history of art. I only wish it did not generate problems with cash flow.

Favourite food: generally speaking i love variety more than anything. But if i had to pick one cuisine, it’d be Sichuan food. And also chocolate.

Nationality: Polish

Favorite song: There are many, but when i feel bad my go-to song is Princes of the Universe.

Last book I read: “Un Lun Dun” by China Mieville. I loved it! The author points out the stereotypes associated with novels for the younger reader, and then skilfully avoids them.

Top 3 fictional universes I want to join: AtLA, the world depicted in the comic i am drawing (if only to see the planetary rings) and Fading Suns as presented by my Game Master (it was a world to remember, too bad half the team moved abroad and we cannot really play anymore).

As to tagging, if you feel like it: @zinkul, @fismoll7secinv, @adastra-carozo, @marcianek. I’m pretty sure everyone else i know has done it already, but do feel tagged if you want to do it!

[ashmerra]

may i kindly ask you all the oc questions?

Yes, yes you may.

Quick note:  A few OCsI won’t mention by name and a few answers will be vague just as to not spoilanything.  I have an entire fanversegoing on here.

-50 OC Asks-

Quick reference:  Meri is the Hero of Kvatch.  Arrais a Breton mage in Skyrim.  Dreyns is a Dunmer assassin.  Vitiais the Dragonborn.  Sannit is an old, former Ashlander. Veabris is an Ayleid who’saround back before the First Era.  Jaka is the Nerevarine.  Estor isNot a Thalmor ™.  Stigr is a proud Nord boi.  La’Mihr is a smart kitty.  One-Who-Knowsis yearning for the suburban Skyrim dream.  

 1. “Your first OCever?”  

That would be proto Meri. She was really the first that grew into an actual character.  She was also supposed to star in an Oblivionrewrite/webcomic/fanfic thing I drew like one page of years ago.

2. “Do you have a personal favouriteamong your OCs?”

I like different ones for different reasons!  Arra’s dialogue and one-liners, Dreyns’swhole ark of getting old, Vitia’s philosophy, etc.  etc.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

Nope.  And I’d neverconsider them mine.  I handcraft them andbake them one-of-a-kind each time.  Butmore seriously, the most I could take is an idea for a character, because Ialways like to twist things on their head and really make it my own.  I don’t enjoy writing NPCs for thisreason.  I can’t get in their head and myheadcanons get a bit much, so I’d rather just write for those I know.

4. “A character you rarely talk about?”

Tactus Gavros Sigilis!  An inspector/investigator for the Empirein Skyrim.

5. “If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?”

I think that’s not really up to me.  I can’t decide who fans will latch onto.  I know who’s the most well-liked at thistime, but that’s no indicator of who would be well-loved by a much wideraudience.  I’ll leave this one to my fans!

6. “Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?”

I do my best to give everyone unique looks andclothing/color schemes, but!  There’sthree that got based on each other and aren’t the same but even I’m confusednow.  I’ll make a separate post to breakit down.

7. “Are your OCs part of any story or stories?”

None of them exist outside of the Elder Scrolls universe,and I have yet to write fanfiction.  

8. “Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!”

Currently Arra, Sannit, and Veabris.  Though I think I’m game to RPing any of them,I already have a few more that I want to add to my RPing blog!  (btw, if you like the idea of RPing with me,all you have to do is ask.)

9. “Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?”

No.  Not give, nevergive.  But that doesn’t mean they can’tappear in your writing/meta/art, just that it’s a crossover, you don’t own themjust like I don’t own yours when I allude to them in RPs.  (Did I ever post that here?)

10. “Introduce an OC with a complicated design?”

All the ones I don’t draw, lol

Okay, more seriously…no, that’s pretty much why.

11. “Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a ‘sunshine’?”

100% Arra

12. “Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot”

Can I say all of them? My favorites are the ones who are woven into the lore and pre-existingcharacters, and ones that feel like real people and not just “ArgonainDragonborn #76”.  I like the ones whotake it as seriously as me, and as I see people do, I feel more confident totalk about and expand them.

13. “Do you have any troublemaker OCs?”

Actually, not really.  Dreyns, Jaka and Stigr can all be at times, though.

14. “Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory”

I want to legit change that to one without tragedy in theirbackstory because they’re all tragic…

15. “Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?”

Sometimes!  But I trynot to go overboard because I’m not sure if people like it.  

16. “Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?”

My Daedric biologist, I would imagine.

17. “Any OC OTPs?”

I’m not much of a shipper, honestly.  And I really can’t think of any at themoment.  

18. “Any OC crackships?”

Read 17.

19. “Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)”

I’ll pass on this one only because my answer would start gettingtoo personal for this ask.

20. “Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details(headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?”

Veabris has a beautiful singing voice that would sound agood deal like Annie Lennox.  Actually,just listen to “Into the West” and you’re good to good.  But you’ll never hear it because Vea is superself-conscious and private about singing.

21. “Your most artistic OC?”

You know, I think I overlook making them artistic justbecause I am.  It would be too obvious.  But let’s say Stigr and La’Mihr are.

22. “Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?”

In world or OOC? That’s a really important distinction! But Veabris’s intentions are usually misinterpreted.  

23. “Introduce an OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what thecharacter would be like?”

Most of them!  I workon them for a while until I feel they’re ready to be revealed.  24. “If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?”

Don’t do this to me!!!!  Ahhhh I don’t know I love them all! But Jaka would probably be the most fun to hang out with?  Then again, a day out with Sannit would begreat.

25. “The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, sharedlike/dislike for something etc?)”

Meri.

26. “Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about themagainst your will?”

Arra and yes, I’m still bitter about it.  I won’t get into it because I’d rather notmake posts like that, but if anyone would like to know feel free to message me.

27. “Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?”

Nah, they come about and the songs fit them after.

28. “Your most dangerous OC?”

Okay!  So we haveMankar Camoran’s kid, Molag Bal’s Undying Champion, a lesser Daedric Prince anda double-memoried Godkiller.  Have funwith that battle royal!

29. “Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at nightwithout telling anyone they’re going?”

Tactus Gavros Sigilis, it’s his literal job.  Wait it’s Estor’s too.  …And kinda Veabris’s.  Well!

30. “Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animalcollection?”

It’s Dreyns.  It’s soDreyns.

31. “Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like(what they reblog, layout, anything really)”

Sannit treats it like a regular website blog and only postsstories from his life or answers to asks. No reblogs and he doesn’t follow anyone.

Meri posts advanced DYI stuff and martial technique.

32. “Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonistand why?”

I don’t play horror games but I’m thinking Estor in creepy,culty fan theory version of Rorikstead. (Should I write this?)

33. “Your shyest OC?”

She’s so shy she won’t let me talk about her.

34. “Do you have any twin characters?”

Not yet!

35. “Any sibling characters?”

Yes but I won’t say just now.  Spoilers!

36. “Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else(siblings, lovers, friends etc)?”

Not currently, but I’m not against doing it.

37. “Introduce an OC who is not quite human”

The Argonian, One-Who-Knows! He’s saving up money to buy a new fancy hat right now.  Rock on, scaly bro!

38. “Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?”

I feel like it would be Vitia for some reason.

39. “Introduce any character you want!”

THESE QUESTIONS ARE TOO VAGUE AGHHHH!!

40. “Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!”

Writing “Arra’s Story” (An RP post).  The power and emotion of it and the approvingly,emotionally shocked reactions of my fellow players made me realize I couldactually write good.

41. “Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or twohere (remember sources & permissions!)”

Here and here  😊

42. “Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods?”

Daedric biologist person would be!

43. “Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend tofavour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess!”

We already found out I like investigators, is that my type?

44. “Something you like about your OCs in general”

I like how they all have gotten their own personality andidentity.  It’s taken a lot of work, but Idon’t feel like personalities repeat anymore.

45. “A character you no longer use?”

I have a few in limbo. I’m not sure if they’re coming back or they’re

46. “Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?”

No.  Only because Ihaven’t told them about all the bad things I’ve done to them in the first place.

47. “Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?”

Not yet, there’s still time.

48. “OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure?”

I think they call this a “hot take”, but in my opinion everyperson has flaws and depicting them otherwise is bad character writing.  Like sure, they can be nice and all, but theystill topple the board over when they’re losing Risk (or Axis & Allies).  Showing only one side of a character seriously,(not if it’s just for laughs) is boring to me. Where’s the growth?  They don’teven need to have “flaws” per se.  Whatif the “One True Hero to Save the World” is balled up on the floor crying tothemselves because they don’t think they’re strong enough?  Hot take over and it’s probably little kidDreyns.  (Which breaks hearts because hegrows up into something not pure.)

49. “Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes”

Arra would love meme songs like “SEAGULLS! (Stop ItNow)“He-man singing “What’s up?”, and “mmm whatcha say”.  And Jaka would love reaction gifs and objectlabeling memes.

50. “Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want”

I wanna talk about how long it took to fill this out and howmany characters I resurrected from the darkest depths of my mind to completeit.  You’re welcome.  ♥

[imploder]

Response to Ikimaru Hate/Fandom Hate in General

@miss-serket​

“Based off nothing” spend 5 mins on ikimarus blog or the homestuck store lol. Check the links I provided dude I literally typed blocks of text for proof. “Based off nothing” my ass tf

I hope you and other people read this to the end. It’s important. We’re going to go step by step here. First off, you’ll have to forgive me for being a bit over the top and angry. Sunny is a close friend of mine, so I’m sure you can understand why I’d get emotional when people not only spread unjustified hate but also celebrate it. I’m sure if someone did the same to one of your friends, you’d feel the same way.

ikimaru ruined homestuck

Complete nonsense, but I’m sure you don’t care about that one because it’s written to be a “joke.” We’ll get into why this is a problem later.

She’s lowkey homophobic. She doesn’t show it much but she’s basically a yaoi fangirl who sexualizes mlm couples

If you think Sunny is a “yaoi fangirl”/fujoshi, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Have you seen works that actually do fetishize mlm relationships or sexualize them in a harmful way? The insistence of the seme/uke dynamic and using mlm smut as a means to their expressing their non-mlm sexuality are hallmarks of that. And those kinds of tones/qualities aren’t really found across her works. Yes, she ships DirkJake. Yes, she even sexualizes it. No, that does not make inherently bad. She’s not showing it in an unhealthy way nor is she claiming ownership of it. 

and she INSISTS dirkj*ke wasn’t abusive so a bunch of people blindly agree because for some God forsaken reason they think her art is in character and canon.

DirkJake being abusive is a FANON interpretation. Sure, there are some qualities of it, but at the end of the day, it’s a webcomic in which we didn’t get to directly see any of their relationship. We are just told about it through the monologues of Dirk and Jake. Was it abusive? Maybe! It’s perfectly fine if you see it that way. But it’s not CANON LAW. 

Also insisting that people are simply agreeing because they blindly follow her is just ignorant to other peoples’ own opinions on autonomy. Guess what? Other people have different opinions than you. Scary, I know! But that’s life. Shipping DirkJake or thinking it wasn’t horribly abusive isn’t wrong.

Her treatment of roxy was BEYOND awful. She makes her nothing more than a ditsy drunk who likes cats and helps Dirk get laid. Despite her struggle with her feelings for him, but that would get in the way of Hot Yaois.

So Roxy is a recovering alcoholic. Is depicting her drinking alcohol wrong? This is a really interesting question, and is one I don’t have a straight answer to. But again, in regards to the other stuff, this is coming down to how you are policing how other people interpret and draw characters. Attacking someone for depicting Roxy as “liking cats and helping Dirk get laid” is uncalled for. Literally no one is being harmed by someone doing that. You don’t get to decide what is  and isn’t okay when drawing a FICTIONAL character.

As for the “Hot Yaois” comment, see my response above.

Evey character is a 2D stereotype of themselves, and again, people TAKE IT AS CANON. This horrible mischaracterizing is definitely something that hurts the fanbase. Also, I’m not gonna rip on her art style but she only draws characters as skinny white people or skinny white people with a tan. She may give Jane bigger boobs and a bigger butt so she’s the “acceptable” type of fat. If she draws a POC they still have white features. All trolls “just 12 white people colored gray”.

People taking it as canon is not her fault. Hussie draws all the characters LITERALLY as skinny 2D stereotypes of themselves. And Hussie’s drawings are UNIVERSALLY CANON. Does that make it not okay to draw characters with different bodytypes/skin colors/etc.? Of course not.

And again you’re policing how people draw characters. Drawing characters with less common body types or as POC is great! But that doesn’t mean drawing them any other way is bad or wrong. We can discuss to what extent it’s harmful, but at the end of the day, you’re saying all these things because you think Sunny doesn’t draw people fat enough or POC enough. You’re inciting hate because she’s drawing a fictional alien race in a way that you don’t agree with. 

And the worst part, is how the homestuck store is monopolized by her. If you want diverse designs you’re out of luck! Here’s more Ikimaru!!

All this stuff combined is a huge drag on the homestuck community in the long run because she’s so goddamn influential and everyone thinks her POV is Canon

The WLF store being largely populated by her works was and is not her decision. She signed a contract with WLF a while ago. They ask her to draw things, and then she draws them. She’s not willy nilly deciding to deciding to flood WLF with unsolicited submissions. In fact, outside of WLF, she hardly even draws or wants to draw Homestuck anymore. 

As I’ve told other people in the past, your frustration here is totally justified. It’s understandable that you want to see different things in the store and that it angers you when all you see is art that you don’t like. However, Sunny is not the person you should be hating for this. That’s all on WLF’s end, and believe me, I will not get upset if people go around criticizing WLF.

But again, other people thinking her POV is canon isn’t her fault. She’s never claimed that how she draws characters is the canon or correct way. Sure, she has a HUGE following in the fandom, but that’s just what it is: a following. People follow her because they enjoy her art and interpretations. She’s drawing fanart. She isn’t creating what is suppose the be the correct image of the characters.

Yes, she’s my friend, but I’m not going to say people have to like her or her art. You don’t have to agree with her opinions; I know I don’t, and she knows that.

I think people are honestly giving her too much credit. I’ve seen this kind of thing happen on Tumblr dozens of times before. People hold Sunny to these unreasonable standards. People put her on a pedestal like she’s the CANON FANARTIST. And when she does things that people deem wrong or harmful, it creates that much worse of a reaction and backlash.

But there’s something you and everyone else has to remember, especially when saying shitty things about someone publicly. Sunny is just a normal person. She’s human. She has here own emotions, ambitions, problems, and causes for anxiety (which I might add is pretty much 100% from people like you). You shouldn’t hold her to this ridiculous standard just because she’s popular in one niche fandom on Tumblr. You don’t know her. You do not get to make sweeping judgments based on a couple of self indulgent drawings she’s posted over the past 5 years. 

That brings me to the most important part of this. A lot of the discourse near the top about interpretations of characters is something that isn’t 100% black and white. I could be wrong about those things. But even if I am, that does not justify inciting hate or encouraging people to write horrible things like “I’ll kill her,” even in jest. SHE’S A REAL PERSON. Posting that kind of stuff publicly is NOT OKAY. That is not how you act online or in the real world. I know Sunny has been deeply affected and truly hurt by seeing things like this. The worst part is that this kind of witchhunt fandom policing is still going on after multiple instances where it caused someone to attempt suicide. Why is this still going on? This kind of behavior is unacceptable and needs to stop.

[chaoticfutility]

To anyone who would like to continue following me in the future

Simply put, I’ve been contemplating for a few months now that I should start over on Tumblr completely, because I’m not happy with the way I have my main blog and side blogs laid out. I have an idea of how I might want it to look when I do start over, but I’d like some input from people who are interested as well, just to make sure.

So right now, I have my main blog, which consists of...pretty much everything I like to see here. Shows, games, art, humans, anthros, personal stuff, political stuff, PSAs and signal boosts, you name it, you’ve seen it, especially if you’ve been following me for a long time. Then I have my art blog, which only sees activity when I post art, (Which isn’t that often, and then I still post it on my main blog anyway which kinda beats the whole purpose) and then an NSFW blog, which is even less active because I don’t follow that much NSFW content, nor do I make much of it myself. Even then, a bunch of the stuff I post there isn’t even that NSFW, because I’m too nervous about posting it to my main.

Bottom line, I have one blog that’s way too cluttered and disorganized because it has EVERYTHING on it, and two blogs that are fairly empty and pointless because they have next to nothing on it.

While I’ve been contemplating this situation, I noticed that there’s a bit of a disconnect between what certain followers like seeing on my main blog and what others prefer instead. The main issues I’ve noticed being that I reblog a lot of fandom stuff but don’t create much content for it, I reblog and draw a lot of anthro stuff, but not many people outside of a few close friends are interested in that, and I reblog a lot of personal and political stuff because it’s important to me but it might detract some people from the enjoyment factor of the other stuff.

With that in mind, here’s what I was thinking for how I’d manage my blogs when I moved:

First, I have a blog dedicated to sharing art from and participating in mainstream fandom-related stuff, such as Steven Universe, Undertale, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc, as well as the occassional webcomic series, such as Alice and the Nightmare. I’d also like to make more of an effort to contribute to fandoms like these through more fanart, and mayyybeee some discussion. We’ll see. X’D That, and I might also draw more human OCs to show off here as well.

Second, since I’m still interested in it and would like to get more in touch with this side of Tumblr as well, I’d have a blog specifically for anthro stuff. This would feature my anthro ocs, as well as other peoples’ anthro characters, as well as stuff from anthro-based webcomics like Bittersweet Candy Bowl and Las Lindas. This blog will also probably contain Sonic fan characters, but no content featuring official Sonic characters, since that’s more mainstream.

Third, finally, and probably my main blog, would be my personal blog. For all those zodiac posts, political shenanigans, or other shit that wouldn’t really fit well with the other two blogs. Maybe this could also serve as a hub for all of my art in general, whether I post it here and reblog it to the other two blogs, or vice versa. Still gotta figure out a few specifics for this plan, of course.

Also, as a general thing, I’m gonna be tagging things more thoroughly on every blog. For example, I’m probably going to tag all the political stuff as such, rather than leaving it tagless, since I’m sure there are some people out there who are just sick of how terrible things are going in America. (Believe me, so am I lmao but I digress) In addition, since I’m planning on not having a separate NSFW account, I’m gonna try and be a little braver about posting that to these new accounts, but I still plan on tagging it accordingly, with either nsfw-ish for the iffy stuff, nsfw for stuff that’s pretty simply not safe for work, and maybe even an 18+ tag if I feel it’s needed.

ANYWAY, I think I’ve rambled enough now. Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions. That’d be great, thanks. <3

[therabbitandthebard]

Aw thanks for the tag @pearipatetic , I love the story behind your URL and I’d like to get to know you better too! Plus, I’ve always wanted to try one of these soooo

rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better.

nickname: Man oh man, I have so many weird nicknames, my friends rarely call me by my actual name anymore…it goes from Syd to Squid to Squidith to Squiggles and on and on. Also sometimes Mom.

star sign: Taurus, and for good reason #momfriend

height: 5'7", 5'8" ish

last thing i googled: fundamentalism definition (bc I’m reading Persepolis in English…imma rant real quick for you book lovers out there, it’s an amazing series of two autobiographical graphic novels about an Iranian girl in the 70’s-90’s and her struggles with war, the veil, independence, identity, rebellion, etc. I highly recommend)

fave music artist(s): My go-to’s are Bon Iver, Amy Winehouse, Childish Gambino, and good ol’ John Lennon

last movie i watched: American History X (bothersome but hella interesting)

last tv show i watched: Orange is the New Black (binging!) and SKAM (rewatching always bc I’m in withdrawal…where is our s4 promo y'all??)

when did you create your blog: I’m not exactly sure, but definitely over a year ago

what kind of stuff do you post: aesthetics and art that please the eye and have underlying substance (whether it be political, poetic, etc.) also poetry and the occasional news/politics/social justice post that needs to be shared

do i have any other blogs: yes! It’s a multi-fandom blog for the webcomic Check Please! the show SKAM and anything by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton & In the Heights mostly) (it’s @quebecoisandangst if y'all wanna check it out)

do i get asks regularly: nope! But I’m always open for a chat, so drop by my mailbox any time!

why did i chose my url: ok imma rant a lil…basically, how I aspire to be is cultured and analytical and open-minded, but in that ambition I sometimes find myself being a pretentious lil shit about it. I hate that almost as much as ignorance, so i’ll make a lil lighthearted jab at myself, making myself aware that what I said/thought was “kind of pretentious” and reminding myself that I am but a smol inexperienced baby seedling and there is infinitely more to learn and so so many viewpoints to consider.

gender: cis girl (she/her)

hogwarts house: proud Slytherin y'all!

pokemon team: haha, I have no idea! I played it once with some friends then deleted

favorite color: depends on the context really, but I do love yellow and pink

average hours of sleep: 4-5 bc I am always writing papers or procrastinating by drawing fanart

lucky number: 3

how many blankets do i sleep with: 3

dream job: a playwright, a multilingual political advisor/mediator or a lawyer

following: I mean, only a measly... 735 blogs...

I tag @wetbreadofficial (even though we’re silent mutuals regarding my SIDE-blog, but still you seem lovely!) @awkward-turtle140, and everyone else! Yes, if you see this, I tag you! I don’t have many mutuals or frequented blogs to specifically tag, but I’d love to learn some more about my followers in general!

[gomisart]

Random personal musings about digimon (and my personal experience as someone who has made fanmade digimon and digimon OCs for a long time) under cut!

Hmm, just something that came to mind last night when I was going to sleep, so I thought I’d write some of my thoughts down.

So, as most people who have followed my work for a while know, I used to draw - and still occasionally draw - a lot of digimon, especially fanmade digimon. Ever since Digimon Adventure started airing in Finland when I was a tiny child of 9 years of age, Digimon as a phenomenon has been super important to me, especially when I was younger. I love the whole concept, the monsters, most of the anime seasons I’ve seen despite their corniness. Like Pokémon, it’s just something that has been dear to me all through my childhood, and I will defenitely hold dear and think fondly all my life.

However, to my own sadness, I’ve noticed my relationship with digimon getting kinda strained over the course of few recent years. Back in the day when I started actually putting my art online, some 13 or so years ago, I drew a lot more digimon art, and it’s no wonder a lot of people started following my art to see more digimans. Digimon is a notorious fandom, especially back then, for sexualising childrens media (much like a lot of other fandoms these days, but let’s not go there right now), but I, fortunately have had the pleasure to mostly deal with really nice digimon fans, and have made some amazing online friends originally through digimon fanart! That’s another reason it’ll always be dear to me as a franchise.

When I finally felt like it’d be awesome to be known in the internet for my original content - which had been my dream for a while, planning webcomics and such - I started to shift focus in my art away from digimon, not because I liked it any less, but simply because I wanted to start drawing more of other things and even back then (as in like, 5 or so years ago) I didn’t have the time to constantly draw a whole lot of different things. Still drew digimon occasionally, and of course I still love the little digital monsters, but as you have probably noticed, I draw them less and less nowadays. (Of course, for the last year or so, I’ve drawn less stuff alltogether, but that’s because of different reasons which I’m not talking about here.)

So I guess I just wanted to write about why I’ve drawn less digimon lately? Even if I still like them. Well, first off, the shift in what I draw has generally been... Uh, shifted, to my original stories. I don’t really have original digimon stories, not after Eden which ended miserably, and I just haven’t had the time to join new digimon groups and create stories that way. Time is of course another reason, I just don’t have the time to draw everything I’d want to. ;w; And then there’s also the reason that at some point it just... Started to kinda annoy me that my digimon art would always get so much more attention than anything else I drew. Of course I understand why, fanart always does that! But I guess I just kinda got sad about the idea that I would always be “Gomis, that kid who draws digimon” and never be “Gomis, that person who draws comics and has cool OCs.” Then there’s the whole delay with DXT3 - which is a whole different monster we won’t touch there - which made me kinda scared to post digimon stuff? Like I created this mental block of posting digimon stuff that’s not related to DXT. I do have a long history of creating mental blocks out of thin air.

But where am I going with this text? Nowhere much, I guess. Just saying I still enjoy digimon, like my digimon OCs, and will probably draw and write about them when time permits, and hey, maybe even join some groups in the future when I have time and brain power! But I guess mostly it’s a thing I nowadays draw for my own pleasure (and of course commissions), and will always enjoy. But I guess if someone was hoping for my art focus to shift back to mainly digimon at some point? I guess nowadays it’s tightly lodged in original story content territory. But maybe I’ll be brave enough to start doodling my digi-dudes for my own amusement again at some point.

Sometimes you gotta have OCs that might not have great ongoing story lines but are just fun, after all.

[comicteaparty]

September 18th-September 24th, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from September 18th, 2019 to September 24th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

What webcomic(s) have you created fanart/fanfiction for?  What inspired you to make it?

seetherabbit

During last years inktober, I had a theme which was "quick fanarts" where every piece was a maximum 30 min drawing of a fanart. Did lots of fanart of webcomics, including 32'Kickup, Maiz, Jasper Gold. Just to name a few. I'm thinking of doing it again this year, since it was a lot of fun.

The Q

What a great idea! I definitely want to make more fanart of webcomics and niche podcasts!

spacerocketbunny

Oh gosh I try to do fanart every once in a while and I've accumulated a lot!

Job Satisfaction https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/187511608156 Superpose https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/187365212571 O Sarilho https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/185824775876/spacerocketbunny-summer-witch-vibes Tiger Tiger https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/183426693926/spacerocketbunny-felt-like-drawing-some Never Satisfied https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/179577275446/spacerocketbunny-i-got-the-chance-to-do-guest Shaderunners https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/175472239131/spacerocketbunny-happy-third-anniversary TINF https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/127396963621/spacerocketbunny-j-ust-kiss-alre-adyyyyy-its Parallax/ Devil's Candy https://spacerocketbunnyart.tumblr.com/post/116639381141/spacerocketbunny-felt-like-drawing-some(edited)

And more for Devil's Candy, Awaken, Prague Race etc!

spacerocketbunny

I'm always want to show love and support for the comics I read so there's always something I can draw from!

AntiBunny

Now this is a topic I can sink my teeth into.

For Sluggy Freelance http://sluggy.com/ of course. This art's a bit old (I should make some new stuff) https://www.deviantart.com/fragraham/art/Bunbun-114266731

Gunnerkrigg Court http://gunnerkrigg.com/ https://www.deviantart.com/fragraham/art/Antimony-679410561

seetherabbit

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoeRdLzh4rn/ Jack Legend

AntiBunny

I've done several pieces for Da Pukas http://dapukas.com/ but this one is my personal favorite https://www.deviantart.com/fragraham/art/Let-s-Draw-Malo-734648837

seetherabbit

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo1d6GEBUV5/ Maiz

https://www.instagram.com/p/BowTc50hLt0/ Paranatural

AntiBunny

For Latchkey Kingdom http://latchkeykingdom.smackjeeves.com/ I did this one a while back https://www.deviantart.com/fragraham/art/Willa-Dragonfly-623180930

seetherabbit

I've done three fanarts for 32'Kickup https://www.instagram.com/p/BooK-zrBswz/

http://www.32kickup.com/ http://jack-legend.com/ http://maizcomic.com/ http://www.paranatural.net/(edited)

AntiBunny

And this one for Slightly Damned http://sdamned.com/ https://www.deviantart.com/fragraham/art/Buwaro-620491813 I especially like this one because I did it while streaming with the author. Very fun to draw alongside other creators. At least before picarto stopped even working for those of us stuck with DSL in the boonies.

And one for Two Kinds http://twokinds.keenspot.com/ https://www.deviantart.com/fragraham/art/Inktober-2016-Day-29-Two-Kinds-Keith-643156576

Anyway, I'll stop there, because if I included all the art I've done for various comics over the years, some of which sadly aren't around anymore I'd be flooding this chat all day.

DaeofthePast

I’ve done fanart for my friends’ comics. The main thing that inspired me to draw for them was that I wanted to see how their characters would look in my style, and I also just like making fanart for people X3 https://twitter.com/daeofthepast/status/992160815653507072?s=21 https://twitter.com/daeofthepast/status/985002172189310976?s=21

Erin/Leif & Thorn on Kickstarter

...I keep all mine in a Twitter thread, should probably just link the whole shebang: https://twitter.com/ErinPtah/status/1031561632357527552

Deo101 (Millennium)

I've made fanart for Super Galaxy knights http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/

And I did that because as soon as we met this character I just decided i loved his whole shebang. the look, the drama, the extreme confidence. love that

I've also made fanart for Court of Roses https://courtofroses.spiderforest.com/

cause similarly to the other one I just really like this guy. I don't make much fanart

The Q

Ummm love that Sven!

Nutty (Court of Roses)

IT'S SUCH A GOID SVEN UGH <3

HiddenElephant

I only ever drew fan-art the once, and it was for Zebra Girl, which wrapped up about a year ago I want to say, maybe more. I don't generally do fanart, and this was a good example why, because some design elements and anatomical features gave me a lot of trouble.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

I'm on my phone but i know I've done fanart for @Deo101 (Millennium) 's Millennium

khkddn

ive made a buncha fan art over the years uhhhhhh can't remember every comic. the comic ive made the most fan art for is prolly Super Duper Galaxy Knights Deluxe Extreme Mega Ultra R (http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/), for some reason that one's easy to think of stuff to draw for

Deo101 (Millennium)

Its cause of the its really good

khkddn

one of the latest fan arts ive done is for queens (http://queens.thecomicseries.com/) of Amelia, because i love her shirt

One fan art that I'm still quite happy with is this Sunstrike and Bluemist (http://sunstrikeandbluemist.thecomicseries.com/) art that I made for the fanwork initiative. I like how cute both of them turned out

jestershark

I have a whole webcomic fanart moment on my twitter-- I've been trying to do more fanart of indie stuff recently. http://www.ushalacomic.com/ https://bvbcomix.com/ https://sarilho.net/en/ http://www.peritale.com/ https://twitter.com/i/moments/1014897456566415360

Nutty (Court of Roses)

ok i'm home here's the art I did for @Deo101 (Millennium) 's Millennium https://millennium.spiderforest.com/

OH AND ALSO cuddles

JUNK

Here's some weird fanart i did for A Ghost Story https://www.aghoststorycomic.com/

snuffysam

I unfortunately don't get to do as much fanart as I'd like. Drawing is difficult for me, and it's a lot of front-end time to 3D model a character who I'm not going to render that often. So... pretty much all the fanart I do is part of the #fanwork_initiative lol. What I essentially do for that is write down all the comics I'm interested in doing fanart for, and pick one that I think I could do something interesting with relating to the theme.