#me when i want to draw a short little haha comics: what about long and bittersweet queen? angst queen? queen...angst?

[inconspicuoushorn1blog]

The post-game failspawn graveyard scene that lived rent-free in my mind. Then they went to the Elfsong and proceeded to lose ten rounds in a row.

Read more about those guys in here if you may... https://archiveofourown.org/works/52946215/chapters/133933714

[slowlysoluminary]

Still working on that chapter. Don't worry, it's coming along! Yesterday i was trapped at a party for 10 hours and, being the introvert i am, decided to take a break from drawing for an animatic by trying to draw for this au instead. don't know why i didn't just do artfight lol

FULL KING REFERENCE PACK + SIFFRIN DUO POSTGAME REFERENCES

Notes and details under the cut

sooooo howsabout postgame content?

the original post talking about postgame can be found here but it doesn't go into too much detail

So post-game resetfrin and gloop. they go with the party, kinda like a lot of twohats aus? resetfrin goes with the party because they know mirabelle and kinda know isabeau from when he would get apprenticed by the king (long story), but also because resetfrin acted so much like the old siffrin they used to know that it felt odd to leave him behind.

gloop, however, WAS the old siffrin! the party knows this, they found it out in the last loop, and they've formed such a bond with them that it's as natural as it is in the original game. the only issue is: gloop has changed SO much. physically, mentally, even a pronoun change - the party wants to help her out, but they want to explore who this New Siffrin is, too. Isn't it ironic that the new addition is the one you know far more of than the old addition?

resetfrin stays siffrin because... uh. because he's always been siffrin? there's no conflict there. gloop, after getting their memory back, ALSO goes back to siffrin, because that's who they really are and they acknowledge that loop is their own person. they don't want to be reminded of their time as gloop, either.

so... they're both Siffrin. And they're both technically the same person. do you see the issue?? the two of them didn't. the party did.

there's a comic I'm thinking about making to explore the processes and conversation that happened to initiate the name changes. the long and short of it is they can't BOTH be siffrin, but neither of them want to be siffrin if the other one can't also be siffrin, so they go on separate journeys to find a new name. they come back together with the party afterwords and they both ended up picking the same name so it's back to square one.

they talk to the party the second time and after a lot of brainstorming land on Orion for resetfrin and Lux for gloop. it helps the party distinguish between them and helps me establish the difference between postgame content and in-game content

(plug moment but these names were suggested by @the-bitter-ocean who gave me like. a whole list of things i could choose from. oh the life saver. i didn't even think about what names they would've picked until xe helped. and ohhh theyre so good. he also has some amazing aus including a miraloops au that you should go check out. pretty please)

the hair thing is SUPER IMPORTANT i originally only did it because they needed a way to separate themselves from eachother, but i realized they would also have done it to separate themselves from the old people they used to be. very poetic. 10/10 thank you brain for the excuse

the colors for orion's alt outfits are just a limited color pallete, they're not actually the colors afaik. (<- says the creator) but Lux's colors are 100% the colors, yes. their star body is different from loop's, where loop's body is solid black and lux's seems to glow on it's own. do you see where the name lux came from.

it's really dysphoric. imagine being turned into a ghost against your will and losing your memories, and them after gaining your memories back you turn into a completely different body AGAIN and it's STILL not the original body you had. i would cry.

gloop/lux's eye is still blind. even as a ghost they lacked depth perception. L. since resetfrin wasn't with the party to lose his eye they don't have any vision impairment

actually, about that. funny little thing. if siffrin wasn't there to protect bonnie, who did? haha hehe. hey why does odile have her arm in a cast...

KING TIME

okay i got a lot of questions about it so i double-checked on the original post and. yeah it DOES say the king's name. both in the text and on the image. but you'd be forgiven for missing it because it's pretty small on the image and there's a lot of text to read through

anyway pre-madness king's name is Lazare!! he originally looks like the lithe dude on the left. he's scholar-ish, came to vaugarde on vacation before losing his memory, yadda yadda... a lot of his information is on the original post so I won't repeat anything that's already been said

he picked Lazare a few days after losing his memory. he never told his name to anyone in the town he was staying so all he got was "travelling one" and he really genuinely thought that was his name for a hot second until he realized that Vaugarde really likes adding -one to titles

i made his hair curlier! after drawing the king for the chapter cg i realized i did NOT makw his hair curly enough when drawing Lazare. his hair type is almost exactly mine, though mine has more define curls, so drawing it is a BLAST!!

Defender arc Lazare! He bulked himself up to come off more physically and mentally strong. is this a trans allegory? is the King trans or was the body craft just to match his perception of himself? not sure. At this point in time he's already travelled with siffrin for a bit so i like to think he's a teensy bit protective. somewhere between friend snd father figure. cool guy

you know who's not cool? this guy vvv

this is where the King becomes the King :3 his hair is OBNOXIOUSLY long, almost rapunzel-like but nowhere near as bad. it always covers one eye but it doesn't really matter which one.

the crown happens like... VERY shortly before he makes the wish and starts freezing people in time. hes lonely and isolated and its something like coping with his delusions about everyone being out to get him

that's not the way he thought in the original loop, but after the reset his descent is much faster and harder than the last. when Siffrin starts climbing the tower, yearning becomes animosity as he thinks Siffrin finally betrayed him like he "always knew they would." or something.

hey 16yo sif jumpscare!!! wasn't he on the original post too?

.

anyway!!! that's it! that's all! i swear it's all. inevitably I'll have to make gloop and resetfrin full references but I'm happy with the ones i drew in the original post which I'll probably end up pointing people to if they want to draw either of them. the king was the one i worried about most because he's so different from canon, and same goes for the postgame designs. even coming up with new names was worrying because they're practically not even the same person from canon anymore

but that's the fun thing with aus, isn't it? lol

cya

[jojo-schmo]

hi jojo! im just wondering but ive been wanting to make a comic for a little while but im not too sure where to start 😅. i really love your style of art and your forgotten land roleswap, and i was wondering if you had any tips for beginners?

Hello, hello! Thank you for enjoying my Forgotten Land Roleswap comic, it means a lot! <3

I'm very honored that people have been asking me for tips and advice. All of this is coming from a hobbyist who draws these comics purely for fun outside of my regular day job. Some of my methods would probably deal psychic damage to a professional, LOL. But I'm more than happy to share some things I've personally learned! :)

First of all, the book, "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud ROCKS. It literally gave me a new dimension to understand the medium of comics and how it presents ideas and emotions to readers! And I haven't even had the chance to finish it all the way! I'm very happy I own a copy and I recommend having one of your own if you can, but it's archived here if you want to read it :D

I also like analyzing other comics and thinking about how they get information across to me as a reader. It's helped me learn more effective ways to visually tell a story, like what to include in a frame, how zooming in or out affects the feeling from the panel, maybe building a scene by focusing on other stuff if someone is talking a lot... etc.

ANYWAYS-! Some other tips I've learned through my personal experience-

I had to overcome a lot of negative self-talk in order to tackle a huge comic project like this and stay committed. I was a pretty severe self-deprecator for most of my life so far, and getting help has allowed me to catch myself when I'm slipping back into those habits, look in the mirror, and go, "NO, JOJO! You pour your heart into what you make and that is a wonderful thing! You are appreciated and loved and you deserve to have fun making something you are passionate about!!" Some examples of the negative self-talk I catch myself in....

"I'm a noob at writing and making a story interesting... What's the point of even trying?"

When it comes to starting a project, whether it's 2 pages or 2000 pages, is to just jump in and start! It's okay to be a little insecure or nervous about your technical art skills, writing skills, etc... But writing a "bad" scene is better than no scene- because you can always edit a "bad" scene down the line, but what can you do with nothing? Nothing!! I also put "bad" in quotation marks because I am trying to use that term less, and instead call them "early drafts." or "works in progress."

The first Roleswap scene I fleshed-out was the first Bandee boss fight, in May 2022. I made this drawing on an impulse, getting my ideas down on the page without thinking about the technical stuff like comic panel borders. I consider it like a "pilot episode" almost, haha. The final project is going to be very different from how things play out here. But it got me interested in the concept and excited to see where I could take it, and I made the decision to commit to an entire game plot's worth of AU comics!!

Also, what's the point in trying you ask? The point is to have fun! Making a fan comic in my free time means I don't have restrictions like deadlines, nobody's telling me what I can and can't write, and I can make the story as long or as short as I want! I have full control, which means the world I'm writing is all mine to create! Yes, with a fan comic there is a pre-established world with existing characters. But a universe like Kirby has enough open-ended concepts for people to take basic concepts in the world and take them to whole new levels! I think that's why there are so many amazing fan interpretations of Kirby characters and OCs. The rules are so vague, you can just make up your own a lot of the time!! And it's a wonderful exercise to learn skills for someday building an original world with all original characters from scratch! Magical!!!

"I'm not good enough to make a comic. I don't understand perspective or color and other stuff. Anything I make will look bad.

I once read a two panel comic on here. I can't find it anymore but I remember most of it. First panel showed the artist looking at what they're drawing on their tablet, looking defeated and sad. "Man, I don't even know how to draw this....."The next panel was like them smiling and shrugging, I think rainbows and sparkles were coming out of their tablet, ".....I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO DRAW IT SHITTY!! :D "

IF ANYONE KNOWS THIS COMIC I'M REFERENCING, PLEASE TELL ME AND I'LL LINK IT!!! Because it permanently and positively changed my brain chemistry.

No kidding, making the decision to just do my best even if it's not perfect, helped me a LOT. I was always waiting to "reach a certain level" to tackle a huge project because I felt like I'd never do it justice at my current state. Except I had been telling myself that kind of stuff for years and I still didn't start any projects!!

So the day I said, "Oh well! If I draw backgrounds shitty, then it is what it is! I'll learn from it and draw the next background a little better," Was the day I could commit fully to the project. I'll keep studying how to draw them better for my own benefit, but I won't let my skill issues stop me from even trying!

And for my limited confidence in full-color art, I solved that by making the comic in black and white with no-to-minimal shading lolol. Because I can only address one skill issue at a time before it takes me 25 years to finish this HAHAHA.

It saves a BUNCH of time to work with skill issues rather than against them! Because at least experience is gained in other ways, and who knows, maybe that new knowledge will help address the skill issues someday! So identifying your personal skill issues and deciding which one to try to grow stronger, and which one to work around, could help with big projects!

"Nobody will read this. I'm going to put months or years of my life into a dumb little thing nobody will even care about."

Learning how to draw for my own enjoyment instead of somebody else's was one of the biggest breakthroughs I ever made. Enjoying the feeling of being challenged artistically and just doing my best, even if it's not technically perfect, is the reason why I was even able to start this!

And just because someone doesn't directly like, comment or whatever on a post doesn't mean nobody saw it! I used to get really down on myself for the lack of engagement on my art on other websites.

I was a lurker for pretty much my entire teenage years and never posted my own stuff or commented much. But that didn't take away the fact that I really enjoyed the things I saw online. Those positive feelings were real to me, even when I didn't know how to articulate it in words. Granted, I grew up into a Words of Affirmation main, and I use words to tell people the positive things I think about them as much as I can! But I know not everyone prefers words to express themselves. So I think about the people that I don't know enjoy my work- that just because I don't see it doesn't mean I didn't make a positive impact on someone by sharing my stories.

THIS IS GETTING LONG-- UHHH, STORY TIPS!!

If you work best on technology, start building the story in a Notes app, or a Google Doc! If you work best with pen and paper, start a notebook and rearrange stuff as you need to!

Or if you're chaotic like me, a mix of tech and paper!! I bought a notebook with ring binding so I can remove and rearrange pages of drafts as much as I wanted to! Like here's two very rough concept pages of one Chapter 1 scene made months apart.

I'd say planning out the biggest basic plot points and then filling in between as I went was most helpful! I also have separate notes for character motivations, important story-changing events, etc... So I can have my own reference when I'm writing new scenes!

Okay this was a lot, sorry about the yapping! Hopefully it helps even a tiny bit. If you have any specific questions I'm happy to talk about my experience in the creation process! Or elaborate on anything I said above.

And finally, because I'm not a professional there are probably plenty of other tactics that could work better for some people. My ADHD probably doesn't help with the chaos of my process either, HAHA. But thank you for reading this far and enjoying the peek into the rainbow glitter and soap bubbles that inhabit the right side of my brain, heehee.

[1driedpersimmon]

Do you have any advice for people who might want to get into making comics like yours? I'm always pleasantly surprised by how fast you pump them out and even have other little projects/doodles on the side. How do you keep the quality consistent?

(sorry if this sounds a lil cold (?) i rlly love your peppercakes they r so skrunkly)

First off - Thank you !! I'm honored you like my lil guys and comics hehe! (and no worries on the tone !! I didn't think it sounded cold at all!)

Alright secondly lets see...

Short answer: You really just gotta start and keep going!! Once you start you get the momentum and it gets much easier (like riding a bike, which people like to use as comparison often).

Long answer:

Alright I thought about how to answer for this for a bit and I think I'll break it down to the main aspects.

So timing ! Basically I'm drawing 24/7 (and I'm currently not working as it's an off time for me, but I shall in a week and you will see that my posting frequency will decrease substantially). Ok maybe not 24/7 but I essentially am drawing from the moment I wake up to when I sleep (minus eating, restroom, working out, some errands) and while I do not say this is the key to being better, I'm just realistically displaying how much time I'm spending on drawing. (... one of my new years resolution is to not in fact do that and go out more because I feel like I'm being cooped up in my room a lot haha). But minus the amount of time I spend itself a lot of it has to do with the importance I take in speed drawing. And when I say that I mean quite literally how fast I can draw. AND I think a large part of where that speed comes from is how I like to generalize designs and just my overall process of drawing. (Which, I will not go over now but if you'd like I could make a separate post on how I go about doing my usual sketch, lines, colors, etc) Like, I love ff and all of it's crazy designs but it's so complicated I simplify everything till it's juussstt recognizable, and that's something I feel like really adds to the speed of things.

Also that's sweet of you to say for the quality haha (I always am thinking stuff like ah man this aint it... not my finest work, and then just post anyways cuz who cares I already made it heh)! That being said my quality wasn't alwaysss consistent! Here's an example of my very first "comic" I made for my characters:

And here's the same 4 panels I redrew just about 2 years later:

So I've been basically drawing comics for this for just about 2 years now (will be 2 years officially in a few months) and I most certainly did not get here in one night. I think, as I've mentioned, it's really important to keep up with the comic making (or drawing in general) so that, yes, you can get better, but the way you get better is that it becomes familiar to you. So you can approach concepts and ideas with a more experience. And I think a large part of what holds alot of people back is the idea that "ah I can't do this idea I'm not good enough." So what !! Still do it, I most certainly did it a couple years ago when I barely scribbled my ideas. And then you can totally go back and redraw it ! no "Rule" saying you can't go back and revisit your ideas, like hell even professional artists go back and republish their works with their improved art styles ! (ex. Tokyo Ghoul... even though I don't care for the story, it's still pretty cool! I think he even added more scenes? Anyways..). I think there was that one post going around where it was something like do it scared and that's really REALLY what you gotta do.

And that leads to my final point. You gotta love doing it. I like to make comics because I LOVE my characters, their story, and actually the act of putting it all together into a story, drawn comic, visuals, etc. And, I found my method of loving them. For me, what held me back was the "structure" of comics. I mean you can p much see that the way I like to do things is def not the "traditional" manga/western comic book style right? I won't go as far to say that I "made up this way" of comic making where it's one panel at a time but it certainly worked for me. (I have no idea how many comic wips I have collecting dust in my folders from my earilier days of making this comic where I just gave up 20% of the way in because I really could not vibe with the formatting, but then I figured out I really like to "thumbnail" comics (a result of when I was studying storyboards alot imo) and I went on from there).

This is where I feel like alot of people get stuck too. Where they really do like their ideas, their character, their stories and such, but as soon as they try and go through the process of creating in a certain way... the wind is just instantly taken out of their sails. And while I do believe sometimes you just gotta push through and do it anyways, sometimes that's not the right method to go about it. So instead of brute forcing a method of creation and eventually forming a bad relationship with the process, find a method that works for you. And maybe it doesn't look all that great or good compared to others, but that comes in time and as long as you like doing it, that's what really matters at the end of the day.

Tl;dr: be a lil freak, and lil weird about what you do (this applies to everything, not only art :3)

Alright so I think that's all the points? idk if you still want to ask me stuff, feel free to anytime :) Always happy to share my thoughts!

[xruiiii-blog]

Hi I’m literally obsessed with this au

I have a couple questions I’m so sorry if I’m bothering you but I’ve been analyzing this comic for way too long

Who is leading mountain to be killed? Who is getting crowned? Why is mountain being killed? Are the rest of the knights/other portraits other ghouls? Who is helping phantom unbury him? Is phantom unveiling him at the end?

I’m so sorry I’m obsessed, your art is amazing and thank you for your time

Thanks for the time and energy you invested into this!!! Wow! I might disappoint you after this haha. But u know! Always analyze and believe in whatever you think it’s the best explanation! I love when ppl have their own understanding of a piece :) that’s why there’s no dialogue

Anyway about the comic…

It supposed to be a simple “once upon a time” kinda thing. A bedtime tell, someone’s small piece of memory, a casual story that’s melancholy. Nobody’s really important, except the little prince and his knight. There’s no deeper meaning other than the lonely prince lost the only person he cares about to a war.

Something about the titan knights is that they don’t care about their identity. Their powers and skills are the things that matters. That’s their identity instead of who that person is under that mask. They are weapons and they like to keep it that way. Meaning that if any one of them dies during the war, a weapon has served its purpose. The others will move on and there’s no sorrow. I don’t want to talk too much about different species lore here it’s a lot…maybe next time :)

However, the two anonymous knights are rather closer to Mountain and Phantom than everyone else. They are also more human-like. They are more sentimental than some others on the team. It’s not anyone’s fault that the titans are this way btw, it’s just how things is. These two knights care about phantom more than the others does spiritually, they kinda understand how close their captain was to the prince and what Mountain meant to him. So they take him to Mount. Usually titans don’t even take the dead body back with them. It’s not like they don’t care, they do, but to them dead body it’s meaningless. No longer serve any purpose. Titans don’t ever grieve, mourn, or anything.

Phantom does. Be glad that he’s even able to contact with the corpse one last time cuz a lot of times soldier’s grave is just an empty tomb. That’s also why he digs. He needs to see it himself in order to let go. He places the veil back to place and sees what he’s familiar with for his whole life. The mere illusion that Mount is still with him.

…

Honestly this whole thing came to me at 2am and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I feel like its more of a vibe, very vague story and fear of death I didn’t executed it the way I wish I could (skill issue…) anyway my first actual try at drawing comics and it took me 2 miserable weeks(it was okay). I shared this before I have concentrate issue my attention span is short💀…ngl the process it’s challenging and I wasn’t expecting ppl to understand what’s happening or even read it. I didn’t expect myself to finish the whole thing even lol. Glad you like it and look at it with these much appreciation AND letting me know!!! :)) that’s what I was tryna say. 🖤🖤🫶🫶🫶

[meanbossart]

A long over-due ask compilation (Art & Music)

It's vaguely based on a short story from the book "The Consumer" by Michael Gira, specifically "The Boss". I think it came up in conversation with a friend or something when I was picking a new username, so that's how we arrived at it - this was almost a decade ago so, my memory on it is a little hazy!

{MORE UNDER THE CUT]

HAHA thank you so much!!! Glad you enjoy what I do 😎🍻

I BELIEVE this little guide I put together over here might be helpful to you, also! I touched on pretty much everything you brought up.

As for reference material when it comes to facial expressions, I have a mirror next to my desk which I glance at often and make weird faces at LOL and for consistency, it's really a matter of learning to dissect and remember facial structure. It's just something you end up developing an eye for when you've done it for long enough! Naturally, if we're talking about drawing existing characters, it's always helpful to just look at some pictures of their mugs and take a minute to define what features about them make their faces recognizable - I touch on this at the link above as well!

I do plan on making a "drowstarion" (love that, by the way LOL) playlist eventually, life's just been kicking my ass and I hardly have the time 😭and when I do, I just wanna draw.

Otherwise I don't have any other playlists floating around at the moment, BUT the one my boyfriend made for his Vellioth comic can be found here, and it might scratch a similar itch!

Thank you! I believe this was in reference to this post. Something like that takes me about... An hour??? If we're talking just the colors, at least. Though that's a really rough estimate because I take a lot of breaks, so my sense of time when I work ends up pretty skewed. Even if the application of the colors themselves took less than 20 minutes I probably spent 2 hours just staring at it LOL.

My friend, I have no idea. I'm in a constant battle between "I want to draw more realistically" and "I want to simplify my art so I can draw more/faster". What you see is the result of that ongoing brain-tug-of-war.

Also, just the way I assume everyone else develops theirs - they see stuff they like and emulate it until their art is Frankensteinish enough to be it's own unique thing!

I'm far from a Type O Negative buff, BUT I'm happy to share some of my favorites with you! They're quite scattered across a couple of their albums so I'm not sure I have a favorite, but I would say October Rust is a good starting point.

In no particular order, these are my most listened tracks of theirs: -Love You to Death -Black N.01 -Haunted -She Burned Me Down -Can't Lose You -I Don't Wanna Be Me -Be My Druidess -September Sun -Tripping A Blind Man

Alas, I was one of those people who was already drawing in kindergarten 😅 though I would say I only started taking it seriously when I was around 15-16 years old. As someone who has tried their hand at several other hobbies since reaching adulthood, I get what you're saying that it can kinda feel like... You missed the wagon? I've felt that way about all kind of things lol

That said, I've seen adults managing to develop their art skills extremely fast and effectively before. Understanding where and how you need to improve, and how to follow lessons/guides best is something that is vastly improved by maturity and knowing how to best hone your time, attention, and resources - and those are skills we completely lack as children. So, I sincerely believe that as long as you commit yourself, you can definitely get to a point that you're happy with in a couple of years if not less.

JUST DO IT BUDDY we are all just people looking through a screen and you won't ever see, talk, or meet 99% of the folks who ever clap eyes on what you post. Whenever you start getting nervous about sharing something, take a minute to ask yourself why you're nervous, and if none of the reasons have any genuine substance besides being afraid of what people "might think", just go ahead and post it. You're no mind-reader after all, and if you are, I doubt you can hear what a guy from Argentina or wherever is thinking about the art you made.

Point is, nobody online can touch you 🤷and if someone doesn't like what you do, they can simply choose to not interact with it, and if they do you can block and move on. There are zero reasons for you to feel "bad" about putting up a doodle when our experiences on the web are so easily curated nowadays.

[kathaynesart]

What advice would you give to someone who really wants to get into writing/drawing comics, but doesn't know how or where to start? What would you recommend? Even if/ especially if they already have a decent history in writing and drawing

SHORT ANSWER: Don’t do what I’m doing with Replica haha! I’m breaking all my own rules with this comic but maybe we can use it as a good example of what not to do in my rant below…

LONG ANSWER: (below the cut)

Hoo boy… there are so many avenues this question could take. I assume you don’t necessarily mean entering the comic industry as a professional (there are far more experienced people you can ask about that). But simply drawing your own comics? I'll try my best to break down some of the basics I've picked up over the years. Note these are just my opinion and there is always room for other methods...

1. ASK YOURSELF WHAT KIND OF COMIC AM I DOING?

The first thing to consider is what is your intention with this comic? Do you want to tell a story centered around a preexisting fandom or tell a completely new story you came up with? What genre do you want to focus on? I'd recommend finding something that really sparks your interest, because you're going to be working on it for far longer than a regular art piece. Plus if you like it, someone else is bound to like it as well!

2. ASK YOURSELF DOES IT NEED TO BE A COMIC?

This may sound silly... but often times I find people fail to take into consideration whether or not the story they are telling works best with the medium they are considering. Had I done Replica as a fan fiction, I would be much farther along with it... but with comics there comes a wide range of subtle visual cues, parallels, and symbolism I can use that I wouldn't be able to show through writing. The written word also has many strengths that comics lack... it just comes down to what you want to be able to show in your story.

3. KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE

If this is your first time doing a comic, I recommend not overextending yourself with some grand epic that is going to take you forever (like Replica haha.)

Example: Years ago a close friend and I did a webcomic called Perpetual Flux that we were unable to finish. It went for about 2-3 years, was over 110 pages long, and yet we had only managed to get about 3 chapters into what would have probably been a +30 chapter story. We came up with this huge epic we wanted to tell and while it was a story we still wanted to finish, it just became impossible to continue as our lives and availability changed.

So start small! And take that experience you gain into bigger, future projects. Obviously I have not learned my lesson with Replica, but at least with this project it's something I can do on my own time and is supported by a wonderful community who keep me inspired. Speaking of which...

4. FINDING AN AUDIENCE

If it’s a story based off something with an existing fandom then half the work is already done! You just need to start interacting more with people in that fandom, and I mean really interacting. Talk to other artists, join Zines, leave comments, and share other people’s work. It can foster a community and help you be a part of the fandom so that people will be interested in what you have to share.

If it’s a new story you’re going to have to create your own community. Nowadays it’s easier than ever to get your work out there, but the competition for eyes is much steeper. What I find that works is rather than starting the comic cold turkey, draw out some highlights from your future story. Moments that have yet to unfold that might wet a random viewer's appetite for more. Kind of like… a trailer for what’s to come. Keep dropping those little crumbs of interest as you prep your comic to garner some interest and that way when you do start you may already have some followers who might share your work around!

5. CONSISTENCY IS KEY

Get into the habit of drawing and writing regularly. I know it can be a hassle and the last thing you want to do is make it a chore, but like exercising I find that the more I do it, the easier it is and the better I feel about it. Nowadays I feel weird if I'm not at least writing some script or drawing a few sketches towards my comic/projects every day.

Also, if you can make sure to update fairly regularly (something I also fail at with Replica haha, but at least I try to post little things here and there when time allows). It's important to let your followers know that you are still there and you care! It also helps keep you at the front of their minds. My fellow Apocalypse AU creators Cass and Tapakah0 are GREAT at this as they post a ton! It helps garner a strong community and a lot of continuous excitement! I wish I had that same energy and time but you'll have to make do with my old-lady pace of things, bless you all haha.

6. GRAPHIC DESIGN

Obviously as a writer and artist you're used to doing both... but with comics there's another aspect that can come into play. Graphic design! Whether it's your title, your font choices, the word bubbles, or the way you break down the panels, these area all things you should take into consideration. For example, every webcomic has panels, but they can vary tremendously in style. Because of Tumblr and the nature of the scroll method I chose to forgo the typical "comic book style" for more of a... loose storyboard feel where I care more about the angle of the shot within each panel rather than how these separated images link up to one another. Where as with Perpetual Flux, it was laid out on actual comic pages so we had to take serious consideration into how they fit together within each page. IngunnSara is also a great example of this more traditional method of paneling and it's gorgeous and difficult and they have my utmost respect for pulling it off with Hamato Wanderers! So I recommend looking to some of your own favorite comics and see what jives with you.

7. FIND A STYLE THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Also failed this with Replica haha, but to be fair I went right into it with the intent on learning the style as I went. But I recommend having some grasp on the style you want to use and whether or not it's a viable to be drawing over and over again for your comic (for example, if you make it too detailed it will take you far longer to draw!)

8. FORGET ABOUT PERFECTION

Perfection is a lie. There is no place for it in art, especially if you're just doing this for your own pleasure. Don't strive for it. Don't worry about it. Don't compare yourself. Just keep doing what you're doing and keep learning from it. You'll get much farther!

Ok... hopefully that helps a bit. I'm sure there's plenty more to talk about but I feel like I've talked enough for now. Thanks for listening to my TED Talk and lemmed know if you manage to get your comic off the ground :)

[signanothername]

UT/UTMV Asks Masterpost (part 1)

This will only include silly asks

*tip! Those in red text will contain an explicit discussion/visual display of some sort of trigger/content warning, these could be blood, emotional or physical abuse, emotional manipulation, death, self destructive behaviors, implied or discussed suicidal ideation, suggestive content or other sensitive topics

*tip! Those in orange text will contain an implied or mentioned trigger/content warning but no explicit discussion/visual display

*tip! Asks with 💬 are without art, only text

Let me know if I missed color coding anything :)

haha short nightmare short!! shorty!!!

obsessed with how u do killer btw.

I WANT TO EXPLODE YOU

Could you draw a Nightmare sitting on a cut tree trunk (their mom)?

Just wanna say keep up with the angst

Mean girl Nightmare

He’s just a silly little girl causing some chaos <3333

Could I please have a little sketch of nightmare "protecting" Dream from Cross

Bad Sanses reaction to Shatter Dream?

When confronted with his future self, Passive's first instinct is to push Dream behind him 💬

*Explodes but not in a gay way*

*Returns back just to explode in a gay way*

I forgot to kiss the homies goodbye.

What do you think about swapdream?

Why do you like Killer 💬

If you had to give your favourite sanses vehicle modes what would they be? 💬

Nightmare, do you still love your brother? If you don't why don't you kill him at all?

Consider nightmare in grunge fairycore fashion

Killer with kitties

What gave it away????

if there‘s a „Something New“, is there a „Nothing Old“

opinions on skeleton appreciation day :>

cat socks

Color spectrum duo

Guest offer

i’m so happy to see ccino getting more attention!!

ccino our cutie pie <3

i thought nm was doing the mr beast pose for a sec lolol

opinions on Asylum Sans (Asy)???

do you like afterdeath??? Can we get some?

Gaster’s Horrortale request

REQUESTING FOR MURDER!SANS ART

A tiny Nightmare sketch

Shapshifter

do you have any other plans for misplaced hatred? im kind of really obsessed with it

Do you think you might add more onto the misplaced hatred comic soon?

Silly sneak peek

Murder sketch

Nightmare sketch (foreshadowing????)

Bitty Nightmare

Bitty Killer

POKE HOLES IN THE TOPS OF THE JARS

Doodle without context

doodle with your non-dominant hand

Burnt at the stake

Mad scientist Killer

fugly ass heels

Yummy angst

Frenemies

Friend dynamic

Nightmare angst

Fresh

What if the Apple incident was more historically accurate for the time

Sci

Wips and sketches

Ink has certain devices that helps him in warning that he's ruining low of paints

can you do a doodle of nightmare with his hood up please?

Gay

Killer stress ball

What if Nightmare had hair

Consider Nightmare

Hey Dream can you make something or someone health Nightmare's legs or make some mental legs for him?

Frisk and Chara

Ccino and Nightmare

Ink and the Nightmare gang

Horrortale

who is your favorite utmv papyrus?

i love your work so much man it's like the highlight of my day when you post ‼️‼️‼️

That's mean that Killer is probably a Sugar Daddy

i love how you're just THE killer sans person now

I want somebody convincing Dream to smoke

What do you nightmare does, keeps Negativity balanced or he just spread Negativity 💬

What kind of music do you think the bad sanses listen to

bro i'm such a fan of error just massively shitting on nightmare 💬

If Killer are interrest by Cross’ blood and Souls, did he’s interrest by Cross’ unique soul ? 💬

If Nightmare's an ice-cream flavour, what would he be? 💬

What do you think is Killer's favourite ice cream flavour? •w• 💬

Something about Killer is actually scary to me 💬

His fire burned out a long time ago 💬

Golden flower tea 💬

Wait, I'm sorry but in the comic where Killer almost cuts someone's eye out, is that Color or Nightmare? 💬

the short kings go for the kneecaps 💬

Hey, do you think it'd be funny if Killer and Nightmare gossiped about other people together? 💬

nah i can't belive killers just resting his head on nightmares lap like that while nightmare pets him 💬

If Nightmare knew about every spectrum he was on 💬

they, for no particular reason, are wearing cat ears

Cat coded Cross 💬

What is your opinion of Killer with freckles

Silat Sans

I think Toga and Ochako are very Colourkiller

Soriel

I was wondering if there were any nightmare ships you like? Romantically or Platoniclly 💬

Killer costume change

What do we think of apple twins being able to do photosynthesis because their mother is a tree💬

either think THEY'RE the taller twin and that's what they tell everyone

What do you think everyone smells like? Especially killer? 💬

do you think NM could grow or make shift wings out of his tendrils or goop?

Killer and lil Paps

Human Nightmare and Dream

[phopollo]

WIPs: Sketchbook fake dating AU, and She is looking respectfully!

AKFKS

OKAY, s o

Both of these are comics focused around the ship Sketchbook (or Kaisanna as I recently found out they're also called akdns) from Hilda

Sketchbook Fake Dating AU: This is more long form comic I've been posting in multiple parts! As of the time of posting this, there are 5 updates to it!

The general plot of it is "what if after the events of season 3, where Hilda's previously absent father came back into their lives, Johanna wanted to make sure he knew there was absolutely no chance of them getting back together?" Because what could possibly go wrong when you're doing that by saying that you're seeing someone else now??

Right??? Your ex and your child would never want to meet your new partner right???? You've only been single for 13 years, it's no big deal!!

So clearly it's going to go great and all according to plan when she asks the cool mysterious librarian to be her pretend girlfriend for the evening at an awkward family dinner the same evening said Librarian needs to get out of a social obligation, and nobodies going to catch feelings for real!!

As I said, there's already 5 parts of it out currently! The super awkward dinner just finished, and in the future I'm going to be exploring the shenanigans that push them into accidentally becoming a real couple after the gossip mill spreads their little lie of seeing each other to reaches much further thsn either anticipated or expected

-

She Is Looking Respectfully: This is going to be a short, one off comic! The idea came to me shortly after posting that one drawing of Buff Johanna and someone requesting a reaction to her muscles from Kaisa haha

Because as a fandom, I'm sure the one thing we can all agree on is that Johanna has a lot one could oggle at, between being super pretty and also having big strong mechanic arms

The more I thought about how much there was of Johanna for Kaisa to look at, the funnier I began to think it was that no one had anything to say about what Kaisa had that Johanna could look at aside from her cool hair

So, the short and skinny of it is; I think Johanna should get a turn to look Respectfully at Kaisa the way the rest of the fandom was looking Respectfully at Johanna when I drew her with her muscles that first time

And I will also say about it-- return of the Tildy Hat outfit

Mmmmm I think that about sums up what I wanted to say about these two?

Twirling my hair

If either of them gets requested again, perhaps I'll share some wip screenshots,,,

[saiwestfield]

Some future stuff lolol

I just wanted to draw Jordan Kaithlyn and Nessa and them as teens because they are canonically the age I was when I first made them, so I want to draw them as the age I am now

Lot of them didn’t really change at all and that’s probably my error in making their original designs so much more mature in appearance than probably what an actual preteen looks like, but when I look back on how I used to draw them all those years ago, I still feel like they don’t look more mature now than then??? I don’t know if im making sense haha. Basically, my characters grow up with me

Anyways some notes on specific character’s designs -

Grabber (ginger with the frightening blue eyes) is wearing this (stupid looking >:T) cravat, which, —based on my limited knowledge on historical clothing— is actually a mid-late 1800s (1870’s maybe?) thing (Maybe even enlightenment era??) basically, it differs from (current) Grabber’s usual look which is more inspired by the 1880s*, and I just think it’s a fun detail to add, signifying that as Grabber gets older they kinda lean towards older (??) style clothing

*(as I bring up all these dates, know that I am referring to clothing mostly worn by mid-high (?) (somewhere between middle and high) class people in Britain)

With Kaithlyn (ginger in red hoodie), her hair has always been a struggle for me.

I wanted her to have a different hairstyle, like how she starts out with two buns which is a slightly more “childish” style, then evolves into just having a simple ponytail; but I wanted a more mature look for her here, because like, ponytails just aren’t really a thing? Anymore? Amongst teens I guess?

I don’t know if this is based on trends or a maturity thing.

So I wanted to design a different hairstyle, but I just couldn’t imagine her with her hair down or in a singular bun or anything of the sort, despite those two being most common hairstyles for teens nowadays.

But then as I was designing her for this doodle, I happened remembered the half-up half-down hairstyle! It’s perfect! I’m honestly not sure how I hadn’t thought of it before haha

I spent some time going back and forth on Nessa (flower overalls)’s haircut.

I wasn’t sure whether having her have short hair would make sense with the character development she has (which has only been illustrated in my head sorry guys).

The reason she keeps it short usually is because she wants to avoid looking like any of her family members, her sister Lily had a mid-length haircut, mostly never braided, never tied, while her sister Amy always has box braids.

I figured with her development in learning not to actively allow her family’s way of viewing her affect her would cause her to allow herself to finally have long hair.

But I realized that the way she cuts her hair isn’t only dictated by her family, and in the end she would still have short hair, but this time the only reason would be is just because she wanted to. Guess I don’t even know everything about my characters haha

Okay fourth and final one: Indigo! (She’s the one in all purple!) Her design is actually very important to me. I don’t even know where to begin lol.

Well okay, let’s start with talking a bit about representation. (Scroll down!!)

So, the story of my silly guys and their weird little island is definitely of an alternate universe where, you know, magic, demons, etc… are.. around; essentially, it’s a fantasy world. And similarly to many fantasy stories (well, mostly in modern media, especially tv shows, movies, comics, animation overall) there are… gay people! And trans people! And non-cis and non-trans people! And poc! And disabled people! And people of different cultures and ethnicities! And people with different religions! You know, people that are often considered minority groups (especially in western, mostly English speaking countries)

So, the main things I’ve seen people talk about when it comes to representation of minority groups in modern (fictional, set in an alternate world) media, is separating representation into two types:

Type 1: The it’s all just normal here. Nobody cares or mentions it at all

Type 2: There are people of these groups, and there is discrimination against it

By the way, both of these types are totally cool! It’s fine if you prefer one over the other, or if you like both. There’s nothing wrong with either

So, often with the first type, the representation isn’t often even mentioned, like characters coming out, characters stating their disabilities out loud, stuff like that. A lot of people tend to gravitate towards this version because we like escapism! Or we just want wholesomeness or conflict that doesn’t have to do with one’s identity

While in the second type, people often like it because it has relevance to the real world. Whether it is subtextual, metaphorical or literally shown or both! We like comfort but we also like to suffer!

I personally like the latter more. Mainly because I am a part of groups that have been underrepresented throughout history of media and just, overall in life! And also, I like to suffer! (Jk, sort of). I want some of my characters’ identities to be a part of their stories, designs, arcs and personalities! I like it when issues are specific and brought up in media!

So, what does this whole entire essay have to do with my fave girl Indigo?

Well, her story is important the experience of poc. (Many other of my characters are as well, but I’m just taking about Indigo in this post) So, let me preface by saying that I am mixed race, as in half poc. (half white and half East Asian) and I wanted to write some stories about wanting to fit in. Because let me tell you, despite what I may appear to be here, and despite what some parts of me want to tell myself, I have actually been very obsessed with conformity my whole life :’D yay! Okay because I’m getting lazy let me wrap this up super quickly. Throughout history, AND NOW, people, especially poc, have often tried to hide certain racial features in order to fit in with their white peers. I myself, my whole life denied having black hair because if I had black hair, unlike every other white kid in my school, that would mean I’m Asian. Which makes me different! (Obviously white people can have black hair but, I was in like 1st grade ok) I would refuse to speak Japanese throughout my young adolescence because I believed that if I would “throw away” my Japanese culture, it would mean that I’m just fully of my European culture. And this is an experience I find really common with a lot of mixed race kids, and kids of immigrant parents.

Indigo lives in a society where white people have always been in power. And, considering the fact that she is of high status, she is often pressured into trying to fit in. This causes her to be pressured by her family to “dial down” her ethnic features. Like keeping her hair straight, trying to keep her more light skinned. And Indigo is overall a very rebellious character and often does not follow these societal pressures to a T, but is still often controlled by her family and people around her. So, basically, I think as she grows up, she becomes more independent from her family and is able to make choices about her appearance. I think she chooses to wear her hair fully braided, because it is distinctly ethnic. (Changing from her half cornrows style). There are other reasons why I designed her like this, but I assume no one wants to read another 1000 word essay of mine lol

(By the way I just realized that she might come off as a masculine character, (which based on tv history of representation in especially American media does not come off great. If anyone wants to critique me in this please please please let me know!!) it is not my intention :’) I want to explore her style more outside her fancy school uniform but I haven’t had the chance to… hope I’ll have time soon!

Thanks for reading, if you did. I appreciate it a lot actually. Thank you.

[sister-claire-critical]

Haha omg I forgot about the rocketship baby. I think also a Machina or Shard baby was planned? Hate how they took having to nerf that as a reason to take out everything- not to mention a lot of the weird humor they used as an excuse to take out things is still in there so what the fuck! (Also I liked all the stupid jokes lol I started reading when I was still a kid myself & I'm still that kind of goofy silly whimsical person now.) This comic drew me in on it's original artstyle & concept & while I can see why the art changed with a more serious tone I don't understand why the story had to change so much- the tagline used to be "pregnant nun holy crap", & it was such an effective draw-in (& short-sweet-&-to-the-point in those little sidebar ads Hiveworks used to show) that I feel like there was really no reason to get rid of it- it was like the whole thing the comic was about & advertised on! I also love to think about what could have been had they stuck with that-

I'm not sure how they would have included Gabrielle being an angel especially since Christianity existing in a tangible non-faith-based form never seemed to exist in the story, & Gabby being a sea creature/siren worked so well with what was already established even from the get-go, however her having her own motives instead of being so closely intertwined as a friend & pseudo-relative with Oscar & Catherine would have been great. Maybe she would have wanted to raise whatever Claire gave birth to as payback for having Claire sort of stolen from her. Maybe she would have thought herself a better parent to this baby than Oscar & Catherine. Maybe she could have just wanted a Clementine replacement, to bring Eden back? Literally just playing it straight that Claire would be giving birth to another new child savior. Grimm could have been a nice part of that, as Gabrielle's above-ground agent, especially since early concept art showed Gabrielle possessed by him- her taking Grimm's possession away from Catherine as a way to stay above ground would have been neat. I get that Grimm is a child but his first old appearances acted more adult, him as a former shard child now grown who also has the motive to bring back Eden would have been cool.

I do think some characters just being straight-up-bigoted then changing would have been fine & more realistic, we don't have to love or even like every character & even despite that many people do like characters with those sort of pasts. Olga's characterization seems torn in different directions, same with Marguerite. People can have complicated reasons for things- like maybe Marguerite could have lived in Eden & blamed Claire & Olga could just be a hardass brainwashed by the Helsings but instead with them any turns in behavior seem mostly influenced by the induced forgetfulness. (Also Olga forming a crush on Jackson in the current story as she softens instead of them already having a relationship would have been cute.) Olga already being a Moonwolf is just complicated on top of her innate strength magic & curse she made with Azi about turning into a werewolf- that just falls flat if she's already a barely controlled wolf-creature, why wouldn't she jump on the chance to turn into a wolf-creature that can control how they change at will? Helsings are already cool with magic so long as it progresses their cause.

Also the original way Oscar & Catherine's relationship was implied/seemed to the readers before the retcons- that if they were together in the past they'd maybe had a falling out or weren't allowed to be together due to the church & were raising the twins & Claire separately, would have made Claire & Marie's future relationship a lot less creepy. All the cute or funny moments in the comic with the twins in the abbey & right after wouldn't have had to be changed either, replaced with exposition dumps & dark moments that don't match the bright color scheme (picked for a humorous/upbeat atmosphere) drawn years ago.

If the church wasn't cool with in-dating at least (they don't have to be homophobic, could just be off-bounds because everyone is a nun, like how Claire's pregnancy had her "headed to the pyre" anyways) it also would have made Yolanda's actions more consistent, it doesn't make sense Yolanda allows so much but that she held a witch trial. Yolanda never needed to be Abby's mother but since she is, joining the church could have been motivated by a "been alive so long I feel like I need to be in a role of power to control the world" sort of thing, a more complicated role to a character that otherwise exists to be solely soft & sweet (besides the witch trial which, again, seems ooc with how she is established in the MiMos).

Someone like Magpie who took on the role of raising kids young (& loved the job unlike most people forced to be parents that young) falling in love with somebody who has the potential for that kind of child abuse when Magpie was away would have been interesting. Instead of regressing into permabird he could've just been some weird old hobo who can't stick around due to magic & his past trauma who occasionally shows up in hopes of checking on the kids to make sure Margie hasn't gotten too bad (in fact there's a livewrite where he does meet up as a human & expresses guilt & regret at Margie's behavior while he's not around) & then it could be he maybe got into trouble around the time the comic starts & hasn't been around for awhile to keep an eye on Margie. Instead Marguerite just has something akin to dementia & it's not her fault.

Claire still being pregnant & having some sort of magic pregnancy not bound by time would've both made more sense & been interesting, her character has felt very one-note for most of the comic's history until just very recently, I feel like because her character has also been torn in a few directions by all this confusion. Taking on reader input & being more open to critique would have done this webcomic a whole lot more justice.

🤩 Thank you for sharing! These are all fascinating ideas!

—Mod Marie🌸

[jesncin]

Hellblazer homework time! The fun thing about Hellblazer is that there's always so much rich visual motifs and interpretation to pull from. There's tons of references in this short comic, mostly from Hellblazer #40 and #100.

Thomas' "fate ruled the game" line is directly from #40, when Goldie is musing about his backstory and it's revealed that in his universe, Thomas was a kindly father (and has both his arms).

crumpled loser. Haha, but I do like this idea that even though the ghost twins didn't get a chance to grow up, they have habits and tendencies that transcend their little existences. Johnny smells of smoke and crumples in on himself, Goldie hums and sings. I see some people interpret John curled up as a reflection of the abuse he faced growing up, (that he's still the hurt little boy after all this time) so there's an echo of that in other realities.

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT I INTEGRATED THE STING ROLEPLAY

The grave panel is a direct reference to when Goldie meets "The Sickly Boy" John. In canon, the Golden Boy rejects the ghost of John Constantine even though he felt "a sudden rush of pity urged me to embrace and comfort him". In our version, he did spend his youth caring for his ghost twin, because that makes it so much more tragic when he eventually pushes him away when he's older.

I also echoed my own comic in the narration :3c. I like the idea of these two reflecting each other across lifetimes.

The forehead kiss panel from Golden Boy's auto bio monologue. I don't know why I keep finding how I re-draw Dave McKean's out-of-the-box mix media edgy art into my own middle grade style so funny. Especially since I studied that guy's art for a long time back in school.

The nightmare sequence! These panels are all callbacks to Hellblazer #100, an issue where John meets his dad in Hell and we get a bunch of flashbacks to their relationship as they argue with each other. The final panel of Goldie's nightmare references the frankly iconic-ly horrifying imagery of Thomas Constantine being hung by the coat hangers he forced his wife to have an abortion with.

[this is not how the panels look like in the actual comic, I've spliced them together to save space]

And here's the fight John has with his dad! I wanted to keep Thomas shrouded through the comic, so he's rendered more impressionistically in this sequence. I combined a couple of panels for when Thomas is shouting up the stairs at John.

So this is more of a holistic premise reference. My approach to the Golden Boy is to tweak these tiny instances of characterization we get to something more human and less unknowable. I kept the part where he's described to be a very precocious child, but twisted the line where he's described as having "eyes that read you like a book and knew your secret crime."

In our take, Goldie is haunted by what he doesn't know and scared of a secret truth he might be uncovering about his dad. The original quote that he's "finding the paths between lies and truth where others feared to tread" makes for a cool sounding hero- but maybe it's okay for Goldie to have been scared at first growing up. Maybe he dismisses his visions as a manifestation of his survivor's guilt before figuring out what he's looking into. It makes him feel a bit more real to me.

More for the premise! This whole fan comic is inspired by the continued motif of characters dreaming of other realities in the original Golden Boy arc. We see Zed telling Errol she had a dream of something that happens in Golden Boy's reality. In one other instance, the Golden Boy wakes up (from being presumed dead) speaking in his brother's voice. Which is incredibly funny to me.

So that's what I'm exploring in this comic! In a time when multiverse stories are over-saturated, and how the idea of "multiverse with horror sequences" was wasted in things like Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness, I really wanted to zero in on how scary seeing other realities could be.

Final panel! Just a subtle allusion to the coat hangers again.

Also I put John Constantine back in the closet like a proper homophobe.

The Golden Boy and the Other Thomas Constantine.

Fan comic exploring dead twins, survivor's guilt and Hellblazer characters dreaming of other realities.

[fatal-error-blog]

FATAL_ERROR COMIC AND CONTENT WILL RETURN JANUARY 2022!

TL;DR at the end~ Hey folks! I’m so sorry I’ve been absent from the blog and from the discord for such a long time. I mentioned that I was taking a break back in…oh geez, May? And that break has gone on for much longer than I expected XD Long story short, I am very okay! This has just been an exceptionally busy year, and I’ve had to rearrange my priorities a bit to navigate it all.

To be absolutely honest, I’ve just been burnt out. Not from just the comic, but from a lot of things outside the blog. And if you’ve ever been burnt out, then you know that it kinda doesn’t matter how passionate or excited you are to work on your projects - you just keep hitting a wall that doesn’t really let you progress. Unfortunately I hit that wall, haha. So I’ve been taking the time to recover from it. Legitimately, this blog post took several weeks longer than I wanted it to, just because I was trying to gather enough will to draw a cute little drawing to go along with it. Eventually I figured that it needed to go up without it.

It sucks to have to admit that I needed to step away from the comic, the blog, and the discord. It’s hard to admit to myself that I was having a hard time balancing everything and that despite being excited about where the comic was headed, I just physically and mentally had to take a break. It feels really bad to have a lot of fun ideas about what I want next for the story, for all the side comics and the graphic novel and just not be able to act on them because something within me is just tired and needs a minute before continuing. It sucks to disappoint everyone who’s come to love this story and is also just as excited to see what happens next.

I think deep down I’ve always been scared that I’d give up on the Fatal_Error comic, which is why I was hesitant to step away from it to take care of other things that had to be taken care of. But I think I know now that completing this story is so important to me that I could never give up on it. But I do know that I need to give myself time to get some other things in my life in order, so that I can get through the block and come back to the comic ready to keep moving forward. So I hope you’ll be patient with me and rejoin me when the comic starts back up in January 2022. I don’t want to bore ya’ll with details, but probably the biggest thing I’ve got going on outside of this blog is trying to advance my career. I work in game development (QA Tester, been that way for a few years) and I’m more than ready to move up in the development pipeline. So I’ve been dedicating a lot lot lot of my time trying to work on those skills and apply for jobs. It’s very time consuming, haha. And mentally taxing. So I’ve been using this time (and I’ll be using the rest of the year) to work on some indie projects, beef up my portfolio, and hopefully get hired for a better job than I have now. I can’t express how much that’s gonna relieve a lot of stress for me, and less stress = more energy to spend on the Fatal_Error comic.

I do still plan to stream working on these projects, it’s (probably) not gonna involve Fatal haha but there is a lot of art involved and me bumbling around trying to program which should be entertaining to some extent, so if that’s something you’re interested in I’ll mention whenever I’m planning on streaming and you’re more than welcome to pop in and see what all the fuss is about.

As for discord, I’m never really far ^_^ I keep discord open all the time, and even if I don’t post or do much in the discord, I’m always nearby to check in and available to talk if ya’ll need me. I’ll try to be more involved though <3

I think that’s the major stuff? I really am looking forward to hopping back into Fatal’s story once things calm down on my end. It’s been a really wonderful source of comfort and expression for me and I love where the story is going, and I love getting to share it with ya’ll. I’m sorry for making you all wait so long for what comes next, but as always, I sincerely hope that once we get there, it’ll be worth the wait. Thank you for your patience, your kindness, and your enthusiasm. I’ll be around (and catching up on the inbox, messages, etc haha), but in terms of the comic, I’ll see ya’ll in January 2022 <3

Stay determined! I know I will be ^_^ <3 Xedra

TL;DR:

Is the comic over?/Is the blog dead? Nope! Just on pause until January 2022. What about the volume 2 of the graphic novel? Also on pause! I’m hoping to open preorders in March/April 2022. Are you okay? Yup! Thank you for asking, and I’m sorry for making you worry. What are you going to be doing in the meantime? I’m going to be working on some game development projects. I’m working on applying for jobs and I need stuff for my portfolio, and I also want to make sure I have something to do after Fatal_Error is finished ^_^ Are you still gonna stream? Yup! It’ll probably be non-Fatal_Error stuff but you’re more than welcome to watch me work! I’ll make a post about it when I have the times and stuff sorted out. Are you gonna be back on discord? Slowly, but yup. I’ll kinda chill in the background if you need me. You gonna play Deltarune Chapter 2? HEcK YEAH MY DUDE

[pengosolvent]

Why can you make all that stuff for Flora and things like Art Fight but not OC anymore? Genuinely curious don’t mean to be rude.

It's a good question honestly, and one I am trying to untangle still

I will put this under a readmore, since I will be wordy under the assumption you do genuinely want to know my thoughts and feelings here

I actually have been making OC things, I just do not share them So, what ends up posted online is stuff that isn't my original work, but it doesn't mean that original work isn't being worked on at all

I just… have a lot of anxiety over sharing my characters People have treated me in ways that have hurt my connection to them… So I end up feeling like I cannot really post them very easily

I work on my projects but very slowly, because I encounter pain and try to understand where it's coming from and why

Talking about it honestly feels vulnerable, because I don't know how to really share the feeling of pain that I feel in relation to my OCs and how people act about my original work, so I feel a bit like I am complaining over nothing

Sometimes, people tend to treat original content as though it just… appears. And they can do whatever they want with it, without thinking about who made it or why

It can feel… painful in a way where people care about my OCs but not me… It feels like I don't matter, just what people can "use" from me matters I understand logically this isn't really the impression that people want to give off, and for the most part most people don't even realize this is a thing

But I've encountered this even from a young age, when I was a teen and people did things like get upset with me over my own characters not fitting what they wanted

I encounter it very… frequently…

I feel like I anticipate people thinking I'm overreacting or just too sensitive to this sort of thing… I have often been told I just need to ignore things like this, ignore things that hurt me if they appear too complcated or "small"

But that's just led to this huge build up of small cuts that make OC work so difficult for me

It feels hard to want to share original work when I anticipate that if I get hurt, I can't talk about it and whoever hurt me won't care Because if thats how it feels, then it… feels like I just exist to perform And I don't want my work to be a performative thing I want my work to feel sincere from me

I am honestly in pain a lot over not being able to share my OCs without deep anxiety and pain

I had drawn my first comic when I was 5, and it meant a lot to me to do so I still want to draw more longterm stories though I don't understand why I feel a deep importance to my stories though I also don't understand why

It feels meaningless on some days, but I still try to draw

Artfight was an experiment to try to see how much I could draw in a short time span If my issue was drawing itself, or my OCs

I also wanted to see how I would feel getting art of some OCs

I'm… very slow emotionally. I'm working through a lot I say that often but it's true

Flora stuff is easier because it doesn't touch the same sort of pain feeling that my OCs cause me … Since it's not my world, it is my friend's I guess it feels a little bit like training wheels? Like, working on story things without the level of pain that working on my OC stuff has, lets me compare and contrast the response I have emotionally

It lets me try to understand what's happening internally for me via having something to compare to

This might not make sense to you much, but I am trying to be as sincere as I can in this response… without writing for hours haha…

I work on my original things, but they're longterm or I just feel like they don't live up to whatever was in my head, and I end up feeling self-hatred and not postng things

I have felt… deeply alone in regards to my characters for a long time Trying to work through that involves working through a lot of feelings I thought were just "normal" to feel, or anxieties I thought were just me being crazy, but actually came from places I got hurt

I am aware that I expect pain and have for years and years And I would really like to figure out how to get back to when I felt joy from drawing and sharing my characters I would like to heal whatever is broken that causes this response in me

There's an idea that suffering helps artists, or suffering is where True Art comes from or something

Suffering doesn't… actually help me make art Being true to my emotions and vulnerable is what helps me make art At times, one can be vulnerable when they are suffering… but… I guess I've crossed that line a bit Where my suffering just started to make me more and more closed off from my feelings, and it's hard to access them now very well

I am struggling to connect to my feelings with my characters, because they have been, for the longest time, representations of my feelings that ended up then getting hurt over and over by people online (some well meaning but unaware of how their actions could land, some actively meaning to hurt me, and everything inbetween)

I don't want to ignore my pain anymore I don't want to

So I am trying to take it slow with things I know are fragile relating to my characters

I guess the problem is… It feels hard to be myself with them It feels hard to feel like I'm not performing for an audience who consumes media and doesn't think about hte artist I know not every person online is like that, and I know some people online are just young, but emotionally, I 've encountered it enough that it's hard not to feel like I have to prepare for getting hurt

That sucks It sucks to want to share something I made with care and expect a deep thoughtlessness in return Even if I don't get a thoughtless response, the fact that I expect one already exhausts me… So it's a weird internal thing

I would like for it to be easy to focus internally on my own meaning and post stuff and just not let weird remarks or actions affect me, but… It isn't easy

And I don't want to be unaffected either… I want to feel things from people Trying to ignore things just made it so that I couldn't feel the positive stuff either

I don't feel a lot most of the time when people say I'm inspiring… because I can't register what it means anymore Because I've had people say I'm inspiring and then they just wanted to use me I've had people get angry and lash out at me over my original work, so it's so… hard to… know how to handle

I want to be able to feel what people feel from my work, to share in it, but it's hard when I've also had so many engagements that try to mold me into what they want

I just hold a lot of sadness with my characters… And it feels like it's hard to talk about Because it's a sadness at the way the internet treats original work as a whole Which sometimes feels so impossible to work with or change

People fall back on things like "It's the internet, get over it" as though that means anything People… act like they don't want to understand other people That's painful My work… It's all about trying to understand people and myself

So when people say these sort of things but then also act like they like my work… It's… What are they really getting from my work? They just like the pictures and not my feelings?

Sorry, I'm rambling

I hope this makes sense and that you can understand

I do want to post more, to be able to feel hope and care and connection in sharing my work I would like to work towards that and am working towards that

So I guess… I can "make all that stuff" for things that aren't my original characters because it feels like steps on a very long staircase to get back to working on my original characters in a healthier way

It's connected to trying to make original work for me, even if it might seem disconnected from a distance

Anyway time for me to go to bed Good night, I hope your day or night goes well --- edit: i woke up and talked about this with some friends and realized i still removed some of my feelings I replied to this from a perspective of just working in the framework of “trying to prove its rational for me to do things other than OCs” but I didn’t really talk about how this ask made me feel nor how it feels for things to be... compared  it feels like flora and artfight were put down a bit in your ask, though i understand you said you were genuinely curious and didn’t mean to be rude  I guess it feels like ... saying “all that stuff” for flora and art fight implies... something kind of strange 

“all that stuff” implies, to me, a comparison of amount, as opposed to focusing on things other than OCs  i guess it feels like not considering that me posting things is different than me making things it reduces my existence to just.. what i post online  which feels like i only exist to you as what i post online which on one hand makes sense, since you dont know me IRL, but it doesnt feel like considering i do stuff that i DON’T post  i cant word it well i don’t want to attribute malice to you, but it did feel strange  but ultimately... I wanted to do things for artfight, i wanted to be able to draw things and try to have fun, i am happy when others are happy that i have drawn for them I also want to do things for flora, i enjoy talking to glip and exploring feelings in characters and storylines  we had a really painful past, and being able to heal from that and work together again is really meaningful to me  i value it immensely as its own thing, in addition to it helping me emotionally re: OCs the ability to believe in change is important, even if it takes a long time  i want to do things with my OCs more, to post them more, but it is hard when there is a lot of pain  so i am trying to trust in the ability for that to change  when i work on other things, it matters to me, but it doesnt mean i’ve forgotten my stories or OCs 

[hetagrammy]

Get to Know You Tag Game

Thank you for the tag @draw-a-circle-thats-the-compass! I also did this on my main, but there's no harm in dropping it here as well!

What book are you currently reading?

Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin for fun reading! For school I've had a lot of reading, but most recently I read through Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner (for my class and for an essay contest)

What’s your favourite movie you saw in theatres this year?

I only went to a proper movie theatre twice this year, but in terms of general movies that came out this year my favorite was either Turning Red or Rosaline. My memory also happens to be very fuzzy about what's come out this year lol.

The two films I saw in actual theatres were Baz Luhrman's Elvis and the new Downton Abbey movie, but as much as I like Downton Abbey I can't say it's one of the favorites I've seen that came out this year.

What do you usually wear?

I usually wear a t-shirt, some shorts, a hoodie, and slip-on shoes. When it gets cold I wear some dad sweaters.

How tall are you?

5'1

What’s your Star Sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event?

I'm a Leo! I share my birthday with Nixon's Resignation Speech and Margaret Tudor's wedding celebration (August 8th)

Do you go by your name or a nick-name?

IRL I go by my given name because you can't really make a good nickname out of it. Online I go by either Marshy or Grammy, it usually depends on if someone met me on Discord or Tumblr because my Discord handle is different from my Tumblr url.

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child?

I was really set on being a vet for a long time, but I changed my mind as an older child and never really settled on anything definite until high school. I don't think I would've expected to be where I am now, but I think child me would be happy that I'm studying history and doing what I like

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one?

Haha nope.

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at?

This is kind of a boring skill, but I'm good at essay writing! I'm comically bad at dancing.

Dogs or cats?

Dogs for me! I like cats, I've just really got to know them first

What’s something you would like to create content for?

I'd like to draw more for, and possibly write for my little Regency AU here because I've got a lot of ideas but my brain is so scrambled. I'd also really like to do more Medieval inspired stuff like I did for my Book of Kells pieces for the Irelands a while back!

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

House of the Dragon, The Cranberries, and always Hetalia

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

Going to Michigan! The trip was nice, but my Mom, Brother, and I got covid at the very end of it after two years of dodging it. We had a really shitty time getting home to boot. Otherwise a nice trip though!

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

I can play the violin (though I'm extremely rusty)

Are you religious?    

Not an evangelical or any shit like that, but I believe in the big man upstairs.

What’s something you wish to have at this moment?

400 more words that make sense for this damn essay

If you haven't been tagged already I'll tag @acemapleeh @maelerie

@council-of-beetroot (you don't have to of course)

[wolfstarlibrarian]

Welcome to the fifth installment of Beyond The Shelves!

This month’s creator spotlight is on the truly unique and amazing @mlim8. Mel has brought new life into fandom with her stunning art and comics that can make you laugh and cry. She's also the artist behind the Padfoot you can pet on the Librarian's home page (desktop) and the Moony gif on the Help Desk page. Now let's get to know this incredible artist!

Name: Mel is fine :D (she/her)

Where can people find your art?/Support you?

I'm only on Tumblr! @mlim8 (I tried getting a Twitter but I got confused so it's an account in limbo~). My Wolfstar/HP Masterlist is here (links only work on mobile)

What's your favorite thing about Remus & Sirius?

I'm a biggggg sucker for the 'childhood friends' trope. As well as pairings that scream mutual pining, but on the other hand, can be pure fluff. I like pairings where the couple can play off each other, can support each other, who might not always see eye-to-eye but have also been with the other for so long now, they know what they’re doing to make sure they still work, because in the end, they LOVE EACH OTHER. Somehow, Remus and Sirius can tick off all these different boxes and I love them for it uwu And then, there’s also just so much mystery about them in the books and therefore, so much freedom to interpret them, given how little we actually have to go on - it’s so cool to see them in an assortment of AUs, tropes, canon, non-canon fics and see them fall in love over and over and over again… So ultimately? I guess my favourite thing is that it’s so damn obvious how in love they are with one another that the Wolfstar fandom is as big as it is :)

What do you think your signature style is?

I think I’m known for fanfic comics, cute fluff, and my chibi style. You will also see a blush on my characters’ cheeks like 98.9% of the time. I can’t help it… it belongs there lol

What inspires you?

Fanfics, usually. I actually came back to drawing on tumblr because of some beautiful fanfics that I couldn’t get out of my head and needed to draw them. Afterward, it would be songs, videos, memes, conversations with friends, posts from friends, etc - it’s not difficult to take something and go “Do it again, but as Wolfstar.”

What advice would you give new artists?

I guess some obvious ones would be to practice, practice, practice. Use references and 3D models, they help so damn much. Video tutorials and other art tutorials are there to help you make things easier, there really is an endless pit of things to learn and techniques to master. Some other things that people might forget: drink water, do stretches for your wrists and neck, get up once in a while to get blood flow in your legs. But most importantly, even if you want to practice a lot, don’t forget to TAKE. BREAKS. Your body and mind will thank you.

You also don’t need anything super fancy to draw: traditional art is just as valid as any digital art (more so because you don’t have a CTRL+Z function and it drives me insane, so power to you!!). Cheaper $50 art tablets can do what you need them to, as long as you know how to use it. With art programs, there are tons of free ones that you can get your feet wet before committing to any expensive programs (I’ve used Paint Tool SAI for years in the past and I know artists that use FireAlpaca and GIMP with amazing results as well :D)

Lastly, and this is gonna be a hard one: Don’t compare yourself (or your progress) to other artists. People take years (decades??) to make art that they love and develop a style/technique that they’re proud of and it’s not worth the stress. You’re only in a competition with yourself and that’s challenging enough already!

What do you use to create your art?

I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch - it was a birthday gift from waaaay back that I’ve had for a decade now :’)

For art programs, I’ve been using Clip Studio Paint for about 8 months now and I use Photoshop for stitching larger GIFs together uwu

What's a favorite piece you made and why?

Oh my God, how to decide… there’s been a ton that I’ve been proud of but my favourite (spelling with a u because I’m Canadian, eh) would be the recent Candy Heart Post I did a couple weeks back now. Just a lot of love and effort went into it, not just the art itself but trimming the song, all the editing and timing of each frame. I wanted so hard to tell a story and I think it came out the way I wanted it to :)

Pick one of your own pieces/AUs and give readers a little note about it. What inspired it? Why is it a favorite?

Okay, so this is probably an obvious one for those that have been on my blog for the last few months - but I have an AU called ‘Rembus and Hunter AU’ that is about an incubus demon, Remus, and a Demon Hunter, Sirius. The demon, affectionately called Rembus, is surprisingly sweet and adorable. In short: HE IS BABY. And when Hunter comes to the Village of Gryffindor to get rid of him, he learns that there’s more to demons than he’s known through the church and his family.

It’s just a really stupidly cute AU, despite the premise, and I’m so excited to share their story with everyone (one day, haha I’m a slow artist -)! Here’s Part 0 (the info card), if anyone is interested :)

It was created when I came upon an outfit ( similar to what Rembus wears) and thought “Okay, but Incubus!Remus.” - and that’s it. That’s usually how my AUs come about. The smallest inspiration and I spiral out of control with a backstory. This AU was fleshed out a lot with the help of Whippy, who was great to bounce all these ridiculous ideas off of lol

Make sure to check back later today for a list of works and recs from Mel herself!