#if i sell prints/t-shirts/etc

[cockroachesunite]

Considering setting up an art shop, does anyone have any recommendations? Etsy, redbubble, etc? There’s a lot of options and it’s a bit daunting, but I’d love to sell my work just as soon as I can figure out how!

[puppys-tiny-space]

👑Tips for littles on a budget👑

This is some tips for tinies (or carers looking for gifts for kiddos) on a budget! Of course you don't need any gear to be a good regressor but a lot of us like toys etc. and it's okay to want them!

🧸thrift stores, a lot of thrift stores have toys and plushies, sometimes they are a bit broken or dirty but there are lots of tutorials on YouTube for cleaning and restoring plushies and toys🧸

🐾e-books, you can find kids books online as e-books which are often pretty cheap or you can watch tiktoks of people reading those books🐾

🩷diy onesies, a lot of regressors like onesies but the prices are pretty steep, if you can't afford them don't fret! Its super easy and affordable to make one yourself all you need is an old t-shirt and snap buttons plus a way to attach them, just get a big t-shirt, sweatshirt or even hoodie and add 2-4 snap buttons in the crotch, boom you have a super cute and discreet onesie!🩷

🧸diy toys, there are lots of toys you can make yourself either by sewing or crafting and there's lot soft videos on YouTube for it, or get creative🧸

🐾mobile games, I love to play video games when im regressed but game consoles are expensive so free mobile games are a great alternative🐾

🩷dollar store etc, while you shouldn't rely on stores or websites that use cheap labor for everything it's okay to make exceptions every now and then, especially for toys, pacis, sippy cups and similar🩷

🧸pull ups, instead of cute printed diapers get big kid pull-ups in the baby-section or medical diapers from a drugstore, they are less then half the price of a pack of adult diapers from brands like tears etc.🧸

🐾learn to diy, making things yourself is often the most affordable thing to do, not with everything obviously but with a lot of things, learn as much stuff as you can so you can make lots of gear yourself🐾

🩷look for affordable stores, lots of paci stores on Instagram are very affordable and the ones that aren't often have sales so keep an eye out for that, lots of shops also have promoter codes they are happy for you to use, for example with my code 'bunnybab' you get a small discount at pacisbybunnie and cozypacicorner🩷

🧸buy second hand, thrift stores are a great place but if you want little specific stuff looking on vinted, swoop or even insta is a great idea! Lots of people sell gear they no longer connect with🧸

Fun fact of the day: Bluey's pilot was only a minute long and never actually aired

[polyamorousmood]

Polyamory Merch from Small Artists for Pride Month

@foxflightstudios makes many queer pride pins, including this kick-ass polyam one! Etsy this pin specifically

@lawofcollage makes these neat pride collages! Merch available through the threadless shop and here's OG flag & new flag designs

IfsAndsOrButtons on etsy has the OG flag, the edited flag, & the new flag for polyamory! yay! A variety of other queer flags, pins, & buttons. Portion of sales goes to charity. Too much to link indv., so all poly shit

@polycraftory has a small shop of queer shirts on their etsy including this poly meme shirt!

@soluscheese has a ton of simple, elegant pride designs, including lots of polyamory ones in all sorts of products on their redbubble (poly shapes) ("and")

These gorgeous stone bracelets from ToadintheSun on etsy immediately strike me as something nice enough to wear to work, etc, and subtle enough not to out you! Other flag designs too!

@who-tf-even-am-i made some poly merch based on my suggestions! Available on t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, phone cases, and way too many more for separate links, so check out it all on teepublic

Look at this adorable little frog sticker from @sofftpunk! This is the only poly one I could find, but there's lots of other queer stuff at their shop,featuring a lot of identities I don't often see!

Honorable mentions:

@prideful-things-shop has plans to make poly stuff, but its still in the works! They're a poly creator with other killer🔪 (this is a joke cause they have horror-themed pins) pride designs currently available on etsy

@frogboi2023 is a small artist doing commission work at (honestly too) cheap prices. As such, there aren't any pre-made poly designs to showcase, but they reached out to say they'll do custom poly work, incl. traditional/digital art, jewelry, plushies, bookmarks, & keychains!

@@aesethewitch is doing pride themed readings on their Ko-fi. A follower confirmed they're willing/able to do poly romance readings!

Bonus! queer but not poly shit:

@izzi-illustrates has a variety of pride pins, stickers on etsy

@tflohr is a non-binary artist making weird & wonderful stuff available on redbubble

Abprallen on etsy has a variey of pastel queer merch

Queer, spooky pins, patches, & stickers available at grrrlspells' etsy

LucknLavenderStudios is an etsy shop with queer stickers & prints

@lyrabracelets is selling beaded pride bracelets on etsy

Kyri45 on redbubble does cute pride designs for a LOT of identities

[alhilton]

My position on Fan Fiction/ Fan-Make

I've been goaded into actually formulating a policy about this, due to actually finding fan fiction of my work. This is a good problem to have! My policy, here goes -

I firmly believe that fan-creations are a sign of health for any artistic property. I am always flattered when people want to spend extra time in my world and with my characters. There are a few pitfalls here, however, and authors have different ways of addressing them. Here are mine:

Visual Fan Artwork

I am generally delighted by visual fan art (images, dolls, cross-stitch, sculpture, etc) as long as you state clearly in the description where the world and/or characters came from and you’re not trying to sell it without a license. I enthusiastically share fan art when I find it. You do not need a license from me to make non-commercial, appropriately-attributed visual fan art.

Fan Fiction

Text-based fan fiction is a stickier subject. I am not interested in writing in a shared world. My canon is off-limits until I am dead. When my work is in the public domain, knock yourselves out!

Legally, best-practice is for me to pretend not to see fan fiction. I admit that I don’t always do this. However, I am nervous about interacting with fan fiction or linking to it because it is a legal mine-field. I do not want to lose control of my copyrights. (That is my main fear – not that you’ll make money on my work, but that I will lose control of my copyrights.)

Bottom line: if you want me to feel really free to interact with your fan fic and share it with my audience, you need to get a license from me. That license will give you legal permission to create “derivative works.” The license will also say that anything I create that is influenced by your fan fiction is mine alone and I do not owe you money or credit for any ideals that may pop up in my own canon creations due to reading your fan fiction.

If you obtain such a license from me, you are street-legal. This said, I do not promise to read fan fiction, even if you license it. I do not promise to critique it or give writing advice. Fan fiction is a gift to other fans, not to me.

Monetized Fan Creations (here’s where I really differ from other authors)

I am quite tolerant of fans making money in my world as long as you get a license from me first. I’m probably not going to give you a license for text-based stories to be published on retailers. Those have potential to confuse my readers. However, I will happily give you a license for many other kinds of monetized fan creations, including text-based stories in some forms. Unless you are a company, I’m probably not going to ask you for royalties. You can keep whatever you make, and I will happily link your work to my audience.

Examples:

You can sell commissioned artwork of my characters to other fans.

You can sell artwork of my characters printed on merch in places like Red Bubble (t-shirts, mugs, calendars, mousepads, etc).

You can make monetized pod-fic as long as it’s not on retailers and it’s clearly labeled as a non-canon fan-creation.

You can share your stories or art of my world and characters behind a paywall or on a site with advertising as long as it’s properly labeled and my own content is linked.

You can make a game based on my world. (If you are a company or a large kick-starter-backed endeavor, I will ask for royalties, but I’ll be reasonable).

You can make a D&D manual (OMG, please make a D&D manual. I get so many requests for this. I have no interested in making a D&D manual, but I will share yours and you can keep all the money…unless you are a gaming company or a large endeavor with backers, in which case I will want royalties, but I will be reasonable.)

The things you can do are practically limitless. I don’t have time to pursue all the good ideas myself! I just ask that you get a license from me first and link your source material (my books). Email me: abigail.hilton@pavoninebooks.com

If you would like to listen to me talk about this topic at length, you can listen to this podcast episode, recorded 8/31/2024.

[bloodsadx]

thanks to everyone who has sent me asks and such saying i understand how to draw for being nice and stuff. i'm going to ramble about some influence/process stuff below if you want to read abt it

this might read as some kind of artistic statement or defense or something but i like to talk about this kind of thing just in case anybody can ever get anything meaningful out of my own thoughts and practices. i got to where i am after a lot of careful consideration and spending time thinking about what i like in other people's art, just like anybody else that makes art to any serious degree.

my "style" is very much a deliberate series of decisions that i have honed into being very fast for my own pleasure and enjoyment because i am very inspired by people like king terry/garo magazine/the heta-uma style, keiichi arawi, inio asano, hiroyuki imaishi, toru nakayama, phil elverum (as a cartoonist), gary panter (who was a friend of matt groening and wrote an essay about selling out that is worth reading and did a lot of stuff with RAW magazine which is one of my favorite things to think about), DIY/skatewear brand t shirt cartoons, early MSPA hussie stuff, etc. a lot of my favorite artists walk a line between constant high effort and low time investment art; often contrasting elaborately planned perspective grids or high resolution rendering with simple cartooning. asano and arawi i think are very clear and famous examples of artists that use 3d rendering and photography for backgrounds while drawing very deliberate and expressive characters on top of them. toru nakayama is really inspiring to me because he, like toriyama, has a very deep understanding of form AND cartooning and has a way of making extremely densely crafted cartoons which feel visceral and almost like plastic toys you can pick up and play with on the page. also just one of my favorite colorists. and i think hussie and arawi and imaishi are all fantastic character designers with very strong understandings of designing art styles that convey information very quickly and deliberately; i think bryan lee omalley and jamie hewlett were also big early influences on me for the same thing- they all have art styles with very clear line/negative space proportions, strong shape language, etc, and for a long time in my life i have sought to grasp a similar understanding of these things. and then i think phil elverum's fancy people adventures cartoons and just like skate brands and "shitty" DIY drawings and stuff (the album art for nana grizol's love it love it is like burned into my brain forever; seeing basquiat paintings and poems in a museum when i was 15 made me feel whatever and crazy and etc) are just something that serve as a constant reminder to me that some of the most effective art is art that is simply fun to look at, especially when it comes to making comic and cartoon art. simplicity and joie de vivre are very important to me as artistic concepts.

and i mean, i do fuck with crazy painter dudes and shit too; i was huge into goya when i was 14 and had a print of the witches sabbath taped to my wall until i was like 22, i fw waterhouse & bruegel the elder insanely. i am like a sponge for most kinds of art and i do a lot of art research all the time. most of my first book was heavily influenced by compositional techniques from pre-raphaelite painters and the iconography of egyptian & greek wall art and especially especially extremely crowded gothic art and the concept of horror vacui.

but anyway, im not really insecure about my art, i know how much effort and time and practice and research i've put in, i definitely know my strengths regarding cartooning and stuff, and i'm even more aware of where my work needs "improvement" in order to be "commercially viable." i've been in multiple positions in the past several years of taking art seriously where other people have been dismissive of my art and i've seen other people fail to capture the energy & simplicity that i am able to get in my own art, etc.

for people interested in my Process and the things that i work on to draw the way that i do, the way i have gotten whatever skills i have has been mostly through drawing the same things over and over and over (toenail, cavity, pimple, gunk, making different expressions and doing different poses); i draw in pen MOST of the time, and i have for a very long time, and i make few edits, and i focus on keeping energy and confidence in my lines; i do perspective studies, i've spent a lot of time doing gesture drawings and environmental studies inside and outside. i draw a lot of movie frames and do color studies of youtube videos and stuff like that. i remember reading some kind of criticism of post-KAWS/street art infiltration of commercial art that artists now are most rewarded for drawing literally the same thing over and over and over like their hands are printers and that the main thing artists are then allowed to do within that context is express themselves through minor variations within that key theme; i don't think im THAT rote but it has definitely informed my perpsective on what i do and what i am interested in doing. on some level i have designed my art to be easily reproducible by myself because i want to make comics and sometimes even to animate my characters and that requires me to be able to draw a lot of drawings relatively quickly. this is another reason why character designers and video game key artists are such massive influences on me, takehito harada and akiman and toshiyuki kusakihara being some huge ones i've spent a lot of time doing studies of i didn't mention previously.

and because the main way i make money at this point in my life is through screen printing & reproducing my drawings as items for sale, i spend a lot of time making my art Distinct, Eye Catching, and Iconic, to the degree of instant recognizability even on a t shirt or a sticker from far away, and i try to make my drawings strictly legible and generally focus on communicating ideas and emotions through big thematic and emotional gestures and strong colors that can be easily separated. this is one of the main reasons i havent developed as strong of a rendering/coloring habit; that kind of stuff is difficult to color separate for the purpose of solo DIY screen printing. but i've spent a pretty decent amount of time doing that stuff, and i spend time studying forms regardless, with the lines that i do use. a lot of my sketchbooks are me drawing literally the same thing over and over slightly differently until i have something that i feel is a strong enough cartoon to make into a shirt or patch or sticker design that satisfies a litany of criteria i have for what i consider strong cartooning.

anyway that was a very rambling post but i hope at least people get something out of it even if its just slight entertainment from me blowing hot air out of my mouth for 20 minutes.

[ihavesomejays]

B-SIDE U

again so sorry for delay because i was savoring summer break and was out of commission for two weeks. i'm gonna do two more shirt designs and i already know which two characters are gonna be on them, sorry folks.

final note i'm still figuring out how i'm going to sell these (kickstarter maybe?, bigcartel, etc. idk) but know that the shirts will be in the 20-30 dollar range, probably closer to 30 after shipping is added. planning on printing on 100% heavy cotton t-shirts. will let you guys know when things are finalized!

as always, would appreciate a share! tuition is Expensive(tm)

[emptymasks]

Important Announcement About My Etsy Shop

From December 8th 2024 I will no longer be selling to the EU or NI

Sadly, like many other small businesses I am going to have to stop selling from my Etsy shop to counties in the EU (European Union) and Northern Ireland from December 8th 2024 (this does not include non-EU European countries and the UK).

This is because of the new GPSR rules that come into law on December 13th that dictate I must pay for an EU ‘responsible person’, have safety information about all my products in every language, have risk assessments for... stickers? There has been no word on what small and micro business can do about this, if handmade goods are exempt, etc. This applies to anyone selling to the EU and NI, even if you’re just selling your old clothes on Ebay or Depop and aren’t a registered business or sole trader.

If you are in an EU country or Northern Ireland and want anything from my shop you’ll need to purchase it now. If rules come out in the future for how this applies to small businesses, I may be able to reopen to these countries, but that might never happen. I do sell some of my art as prints, stickers and t-shirts on RedBubble and that seems to be staying open to the EU and NI but I can’t put much fanart on there and please only use that as a last resort as I don’t get much profit from RedBubble.

If you’re in the EU or Northern Ireland and have an open pre-order with me I will still get it shipped out to you, you don’t have to cancel your order.

I’m sorry this is such short notice; I didn’t find out about this until recently and was waiting and hoping there would be updates and clarifications but there has been nothing. It’s all so vague and confusing, and there’s no guides for how small businesses or just individual people selling their second-hand goods can go about this. And if you send something out without all this safety information and without contact information for your EU ‘responsible person’ you could be fined thousands per item you sent. I can’t risk that.

[maggotmuncher0]

Hi!! im obsessed w your art have you ever considered making stickers?

if not, would you be okay with me printing one out + taping it to my water bottle or smth as a sticker? <3

hiiii! Yeah i wanted to print my own stickers, posters, sell t-shirts with my prints, make book covers, etc and etc...Unfortunately i don't have time&money sooo I'm just dreaming about creating my own merch

Of course you can print whatever you want if you or ur friends/relatives/etc are going to use it, I'm against printing my art for marketing w/o me taking part in it. I'm curious, what art do you want to print?💘💘💘

[sheydgarden]

fair print-on-demand for artists?

i'm making this its own post for more visibility - feel free to reblog, i'm primarily looking to hear from other artists rather than from customers.

quick definition: a print-on-demand service (POD) is a company that allows you to upload your designs (that you retain full rights to) and have them printed on a variety of products - usually t-shirts & other apparel, stickers, mugs, etc. - by the company itself or a subcontractor. the key here is that you're not ordering a supply of products to sell yourself (or not) at a later date, you're offering customers the ability to go to this website and select a potential product which is then printed on demand, and the company handles all the interaction with the customer (shipping, quality & returns, etc.). because they're doing the manufacturing & shipping, they take a significant cut, but different companies have different pricing structures & some are more fair to artists in terms of profit margins than others.

TLDR: i'm looking for a new POD service to replace my Redbubble account, which i deleted after they decided to severely undercut creators (especially small artists). more details below, please read before you rec!

so the nice thing about POD is that it's passive income - you made the work, you put it up & leave it, people buy things when they want & you get a bit of money when that happens. i also - infrequently! - run an Etsy shop where i sell things i've either handmade or ordered from suppliers (mostly stickers). i get more money from that, yes, and also it's a lot more work on my end. i primarily work as a freelancer illustrator, i've started selling at (COVID cautious) in-person events again, & i'm disabled - this is why my Etsy has been empty all year.

i am very lucky to have enough of a following to be able to regularly sell all my stock when i do put it on Etsy, and (when I had an account) to have a smaller but steadier trickle of income from POD. i do not have enough of a following for it to make sense for me to order large quantities of apparel-type products & sell them myself.

it's frustrating to see that many alternatives to Redbubble (like Bonfire or Spring) have moved to a "campaign" model where you release a design in a time-limited campaign with a selling goal, aggressively promote it on social media, & then all the products (shirts, whatever) are shipped at the same time. i understand why it exists - larger batches mean lower manufacturing costs & higher profit - but for someone like me who doesn't have a massive social media following or really even a big presence now that Twitter is dying, i'm not sure it could work. for me the point is that i put it up, i leave it alone, i direct people towards my shop & the small handful of beautiful weirdos who vibe with my work can buy what they want on their own time (i adore you, weirdos! there are so many more of you than i ever expected, but i am not, as the kids say, an "influencer")

i've been researching various companies & i keep finding that Redbubble, prior to their nasty fee restructuring, seemed to have some of the fairest profit margins due to the ability to set your own pricing above the manufacturing costs. what i want to hear from other artists is where you sell & if you feel like different systems (Society6's 10%, for example, or Threadless' artist cost-setting vs. letting them manage your shop & offer discounts to move more products) work or are ripping you off.

thanks so much for reading & solidarity to all the other working artists who are struggling to stay afloat as various social media collapses & corporate greed continues to cut our opportunities in half!!! for the love of fuck just let me make things & get paid

[kiscon]

May- K/S Newsletter!

(You can find the complete post in our newsletter. There is quite a lot of info so I only put the highlights!)

Dear K/S Friends, Summer is upon us, and we have mail for you! This time our newsletter is dedicated to only two topics, but they are so important that they warrant their own issue. 1. KiScon 2024 – Hotel Reservations:

We are happy to announce that room registration for KiScon is officially OPEN!

Our venue, the Seattle Airport and Conference Center, is now accepting room reservations for KiScon 2024!

Basic Information About The Rooms:

There are two types of rooms available to book. Rooms with one single king bed have a maximum occupancy of two people. Rooms with two double beds have a maximum occupancy of four people. Our group discounted room rate is $164 per night, plus hotel taxes and fees. Con group rates are good until the room block runs out! (See newsletter for specifics)

2. The KiScon 2024 Art Show & Auction

As KiScon 2024 is a hybrid con with an in-person AND online art show and auction, these traditional and much beloved parts of the convention are more complicated than they were at a purely online or purely in-person event. In the following, we are trying to explain everything as clearly and concisely as we can. Should you still have questions that have not been answered here, please get in touch with us at artshow@kiscon.org.

First things first, the art show and the auction usually have a certain overlap, but you can sell artworks at the auction that are not featured in the art show, and you can submit art to the art show that is not for sale. You do not need to be a registered attendee to submit art to the art show or to the auction!A. The Art Show

The art show aims to showcase a great variety of K/S fanart, trying to convey how rich in talent and creativity our fandom is.

To ensure that both in-person and online attendees can enjoy the show, it will be presented via a slideshow vid that will be accessible online throughout the convention weekend (and afterwards on our website). We will also show it on the big screen during the opening ceremony on Friday night.

In addition there will be space in the Rec Room at the hotel to host a small exhibition and show physical artworks that attendees bring to the convention in person. If you plan to bring physical artworks to the con, please do not forget to submit a photo or scan of it to the art show vid, so that our online members can also marvel at it.

For all submissions to the art show, please use our online form. Deadline: 15 September 2024.

B. The Auction

You do not need to be a registered attendee to offer items in the auction, but only attendees (in-person or online) are able to bid on items.

What is accepted for the auction?

Traditional, physical artworks:paintings, drawings, prints, but also three-dimensional artworks like sculptures, amigurumi, fibre craft, jewellery etc.

Digital artworks or hybrid artworks (e.g. a drawing on paper that you digitally altered afterwards); AI-art is not permitted, without exception. Digital items will be delivered to the buyer as high-resolution files; it is sensible to include clear information what rights the buyer acquires along with the artwork, i.e. what the buyer is allowed to do with the file (e.g. use it as illustration for their fic on the AO3? use it to prettify their website?)

Trek merchandise or collectibles (mugs, T-shirts, plates etc.)

Trek zines (especially rare editions), pro novels (especially hard-to-find ones)

The item must be K/S or K&S or Star Trek in general.

You must be the rightful owner of the item that you offer for sale or have express permission from the owner if you sell it for someone else.

In the case of artworks this means: you do not need to be the artist, but you need to be the current owner of the artwork; the artist’s permission is not needed.

(sorry folks, that's the limit for this post!)

[flapjackthekandikid]

Hi!! I was wondering if you have a list of 90s raver t shirt brands (including for women) I always see brand names for pants, and I would love to know what to look for online, thank you!

man I didn't see this in my inbox until now haha.

unfortunately there's not like, a master list of shirt brands really aside from those already connected to rave pants brands (jnco/kikwear kikgirl/gat/etc.) mostly because manufacturing shirts with prints is/was incredibly accessible (especially in the 90s) for just about ANYONE to do; so some of my favorite men's brands like clobber or freshjive that were heavily rave-influenced were simply screen printed in people's apartments in the early and mid 90s. They were either sold to shops on melrose in like 20-30pc amounts, or just out of backpacks at raves, but to my knowledge and from looking at catalogs, any of the stuff even like early anarchic adjustment were made in maybe 100-140pc amounts at MOST and just in sizes L and XL usually. 26red and some others got their start that way, caffeine was a record shop first before they ever made clothes, I have a handful of their tapes and records they used to put out.

Most of the early ravewear was just skate stuff that ravers /liked/ like hookups or split, the thing that made it "rave" was just ravers /wearing/ it, they weren't really "raver" brands. Today it's still kind of like that, I'll wear like a bugsex shirt or a 'mr clean' shirt or just local artists I like that have cartoony graphics; early happy99, souldog, I have a guess jeans shirt that has a synthesizer mockup on it, a modern phug shirt that had an acid print this one run, and other stuff, but none of those are "raver" brands per-se, you have to style them with other raverwear and accessories and such for them to be in "raver-style". The "rave"-ness is in the inherent diy perspective or clever re-appropriation towards rave (in the same vein as sample-culture in mid-90s rave music as well) and why it's so hard to truly sell "rave" to the masses even today hahaha.

in the late-90s you had stuff like newbreedgirl or random in-house hot topic brands making stuff more "rave"-oriented like the rainbowbrite shirts or the wonderland bootlegs, but ravers would also go for tinkerbell or ppg shirts sold in the same shop; it was kind of up to the shop to curate what vibe they wanted to sell. The only rave-specific brands I can think of (aside from ones attached to rave pants brands) were mostly just one-offs from record labels like the untranslatable, pureacid mixtapes, dr. freeclouds; printed flyer parties themselves like jujubeats and stuff; or random fuct, pimpgear, or thc one-offs that were usually just a play on drug culture and not so much rave. I have a thc shirt that has the nasa logo spelling "mdma" on a pill, but those were sold at skate shops or record stores.

the tldr is really that there aren't many "raver" brands and that if ravers wore them, it /was/ a "rave" brand in that haha. The few that did cater to ravers were either fully diy sold at parties themselves and/or record shops, but most "brands" were just one guy that made 2-3 designs at most for him and his friends hahaha. A lot of current clothing I see at underground raves in LA is the same or sold directly from vendors at little tables at some renegade under a bridge

[lord-aldhelm]

About Me

Since somebody (who shall go unnamed) told me I talk too much about Aldhelm, I wanted to make a post about this.

Like, you know that there is more to me than this right? Like this man and TLK is my obsession but there is so much more to me than just this. It has become an important part of my life, a hobby and an obsession, and I feel like my life has become all the richer for it. I have gone WAY out of my comfort zone in so many ways because of this fandom and have done so many things that I never would have even considered because of it. And have met so many amazing and wonderful people and made some (hopefully) lifelong friends from this. Like it has seriously enriched my life way beyond my ordinary day to day hum-drum bullshit and I am eternally thankful for it.

I am 43 years old. I am married and have two cats (they are my kids lol). I was a veterinary technician (or veterinary nurse depending on your language) for over 16 years before it took such a toll on my physical and mental health that I had to quit. I do my art full time now, so I mostly stay at home. A good friend got me into doing pet portraits in 2017 so that has been my focus, although I also do original paintings, mostly of animals, that I sell online as art prints and merch (like stickers, blankets, totes, t-shirt designs, puzzles, etc). It is not a livable income but it is a nice supplement, and I can relax and work at my own pace and not get stressed out.

When I am not doing that we like to take walks in the forests near our house, go out and explore the local area, take little trips, watch TV and movies together, you know all those kinds of things. I love gardening and yard work, and can't wait until the weather warms so I can get more work done in our gardens. I am somewhat handy and can do some repairs around the house, which is a good thing because this house has a lot of issues.

I love to read, and am reading a book called "Hild" right now by Nicola Griffith, which takes place in the 7th century Britain. I have learned a lot about the Anglo-Saxon time period because of TLK and it has intrigued me to learn more about early British history. I also LOVE fantasy, especially Lord of the Rings and Neil Gaiman. I don't have a big collection of books but I get more all the time!

I love fantasy and Ghibli movies, and have a nice little collection of DVD's that we like to rewatch. I would love to do some fanart from LOTR and Princess Mononoke, and now that I feel more comfortable drawing people I may do so.

Maybe I draw Aldhelm a lot, but that is just because I love drawing him so much... I honestly don't have a lot of time to do personal art and when I do I want to do something that I love. And drawing him relaxes me and makes me very happy. And not only that it has taken me outside my comfort zone to do a subject that I typically don't draw, and gets me acquainted with drawing textures that I am unfamiliar with, like cloth, chainmail, human hair, skin, and metal. I have learned a lot in the past year doing these drawing and I will continue for a very long time. I might do other things if I feel up to it, but drawing him has become a cornerstone of my creativity and I will not stop.

I am sorry that I like to talk about TLK and Aldhelm a lot... when I am passionate about something I don't let up. I just don't want anyone to think this is ALL I do and I am one dimensional.

[naradreamscape]

Content Warning for "UrbanSPOOK" Analog Horror Series

So, in recent months, a new analog horror/ARG series called UrbanSPOOK has joined Youtube, and it's even been covered by a number of indie horror exploration channels (i.e. Goose Boose, Gearisko, etc.), which I know is going to pull a lot of new viewers towards the channel. However, a number of things in the series really need to be addressed, since they're not exactly warned about in the series. This post is not a callout nor any call to harass the creator, Urbanslug; I just wanted to step in and raise a flag.

UrbanSPOOK's premise is that several VHS tapes have been found, of unknown origin, cataloguing the crimes of an unknown serial killer who leaves behind surrealist paintings of their crimes. Little clues as to what happened to their victims are dropped in the evidence, paintings, and witness testimonials, and these can be very disturbing, far more so than other indie series. A disclaimer does play at the beginning of each "tape" warning about general violence and disturbing content. However, I feel people should be aware of sexual violence when going into media of any kind. Moreover, the series's creator sells merch of all of the killer's paintings, including the ones heavily implied to be of abused children.

(Content warning for the rest of this post: references to animal abuse, child abuse, CSA, descriptions of highly violent acts. Don't say I didn't warn you; these descriptions are written only as detailed as they need to be in order to convey why new viewers should approach with caution, and why it's a little Uhhhhh how merch is being sold of these (fictional) crimes.)

At least two of the unnamed killer's victims are children. Most significantly, one painting unveiled in the first episode, "FACES", is called "Fucktoy Cory", depicting a bloated body's face. The third episode, "IN THE WALLS", reveals Cory is the name of an 11 year old, one of two twins who were both murdered, split in half, and then sewn one to the other. The creator has confirmed the painting is of the murdered boy named Cory.

In the most recent episode, "PIGS", a child's severed, eyeless head is found in an abandoned building the killer had been living in. Her painting is called "Four Holes Fiona". There has been a lot of speculation in the video's comments as to what the implications are about this title, most of them concluding that the killer was using the head for something foul.

In the same episode, Fiona's grandmother Mae is found heavily ravaged and dead from internal bleeding, along with a horse that died from heart failure after being overfed sildenafil citrate - the pharmaceutical name for Viagra. Mae's painting is called "Breeding Mount Mae". A breeding mount is a piece of farm equipment meant for stallions to mate with, so their semen can be collected for equine breeding.

The creator of the series promises that things will only get "worse" as it goes along, which is worrying, especially when the only disclaimers given are for "violent and disturbing content" and this content goes from "skinned alive" to "fucked to death by a horse" at the drop of a hat. The paintings for all of the above, along with the rest of the paintings, are sold at their official Creator-Spring shop, on t-shirts. I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to wear something knowing its original context is someone getting killed with the ole "Mr. Hands" maneuvre, but take this as a record that these images, with the same titles given in-series, were available at one point as on-demand printed merchandise.

Finally, a friend brought up to me that "spook" is a racial epithet against Black people in America. However, Urbanslug is from Sweden and likely did not know of the word's connotations other than meaning "spooky", or "scary". I will clear them on that accusation.

Again, do not go and harass the creator of this series. This post is just intended as a sort of warning label. Analog horror is more popular than ever, and with the Writer's Guild strike coming up, I anticipate a lot of people will begin looking for indie series to consume while mainstream television is put on hold. I walked into this series blind, and had no idea how grim it was going to get so soon.

You can call me a wimp, or "triggered", or whatever the hell you'd like for making a post about this, but extreme media and figuring out how far is too far is one of my big focuses in my journalism and archiving. I just finished an article about Agony in Pink that concluded with me saying it had the right to exist; with this in mind, UrbanSPOOK was so extreme and so under-warned that even I had to say something.

[traditionalaviator]

Hey everyone, I am in-between jobs right now and desperately need commissions for groceries. I have five cats and a rabbit depending on me, bills, and groceries. Please reblog this if you see this so this gets boosted.

Will Not Do: Mechs, Trains, Planes, Cars, Zoophilia and other morally abhorrent things, etc.

Will do: nsfw*, real portraits of people and pets, family portraits, skulls, mild gore, etc.

I am also part of a small business that sells prints, stickers, shower/bath bombs, jewelry, T-Shirts, etc. if you would rather buy something from us instead! I am one of four artists here!

[artsy-alice]

Hello :D you mentioned it was okay to print your work so long as it's not for profit but I wanted to triple check. I wanted to print out a t-shirt (for personal use ONLY and with credit to your art on the t-shirt itself) but I wasn't sure if that went under the header of what you would find acceptable. If not, of course I won't :) I just wanna have an MDZS t-shirt with art that i really love on it x'D but I will absolutely survive if it's not okay with you!

Oh! For print, I usually mean like simple fanart prints (some people have asked permission before to print them out, bring them at cons to get signed by a VA/actor/artist and give to friends, etc)

But t-shirt is ok too! Though hopefully the quality will look okay (I don't often make my fanart with merch printing in mind) - so good luck! As long as you're not selling em or anything! ^-^

[taffybuns]

Hi Taffybuns! Thank you for being you and artist that has passion to make. My brother told me that he bought two shirts out of it and he loved it, i was surprised you were the artist drew design! (the pokemon ones!)

Though I am curious and i hope you'll able to respond, do you have advice to make my art for merchandise in the future? I don't mind if you want to simplified explaination, a tumblr posts, or dropping a youtube link video; since you're busy with conventions.

I'm picky when it comes youtube art videos that are always give me the vibes of elitism, clickbait videos or others. You're the first artist I wanted to ask, so i hope it's fine if you can reply or not.

Sending my best regards to you. Take care and love your art as always. (I hope i can buy your pokemon hawaiin shirt!)

hello! thanks so much for the sweet message!!

apologies for the confusion, though! the pokemon shirts arent mine! i share a joint storefront with my friend and tablemate, you can view all his designs here! we have our store bio set to say we are two artists, but it's hard to see on the shopee site format, haha. i'll pass this message along to him, and i hope you can buy his shirts in the future too, they're very well made! i'm glad your brother enjoys them!

(if anyone is reading this, he also has them listed internationally on Etsy! my items aren't here though, sorry!!)

i assume you're PH based aswell if your brother got our shirts, so i'm gonna link some resources and basic advice under the cut-

i'd be glad to help where i can, though my basic advice is to just start.. i began selling merch with dann (friend who made the pokemon shirts) when we were just classmates in college, and we started at small anime events selling small prints with our table falling apart hahajkfghjk.. but even back then everyone was so friendly, so it was very encouraging !! the art community is very sweet and there is a lot of support for you !!

first, you'll want to find your market! this will determine what conventions you want to apply to and what kind of merch you want to make. do you want to make fanart, or original art? are you doing mostly stickers, tote bags, or anime merch? or do you just want to sell online?

second, what is your budget for merch production? starting out is expensive, personally my funds always circulate between profit and spending on restocks again. this will determine what kind of merch you can make, and then you expand later! i started out with only stickers and art prints, then keychains, and then bags and t-shirts later on!

if you're into original art, some events i recommend for beginners are Patrons of the Arts, Buzzart, Komiket. they have regular events throughout the year. if you're into stickers, there's Stickercon and Sticky Expo!

if you're into fan art, you can try ozinefest (sales are slower but table cost is cheaper), or if you have enough money, split for cosplay ph events

of course these aren't the only events, though they're the ones i regularly attend! if you have a more specialized market, there are dedicated cons like philifur, the grand lason, pokecon, etc. for all of these events you'll either have to keep your eyes peeled for table openings on their pages (rare), or email them to be added to their mailing list so you'll be told when they're open

if you don't have any suppliers yet, you can apply to join Artist Alley Group Order on facebook ! people regularly post about suppliers for all kinds of merchandise that you can look up. if you want any recommendations you can message me off-anon!

as for the merchandise itself, this varies person to person. my market is more obscure fanart that other people don't sell, and cutesy original art! i sell big illustrations as prints, though other people report on having a hard time selling prints. it depends on the content and art style. you'll have to experiment and see, or look around other shops to see what sells! visiting art markets yourself is also a huge help, to see the market, make friends in the artph community, and support artists!

i'd recommend starting out with stickers and prints- they're the cheapest to produce, and people often buy stickers because of their low price at cons. when you get more familiar with the market you can try going onto more expensive things to reproduce!

again if you want details, let me know! this is very vague and general advice, if u have any specific questions i'll do my best if i'm not busy! don't be afraid to surf thru some videos too, a lot are very helpful n not too elitist!

gl and take care aswell anon!