#reusing one of my old drawings LMFAO

[applesandbannas747]

i wanna hear your thoughts on the fence challengers: long shot preview pages if you want to share!

oh mAN I have so many and they are all over the place!!

The first one is a little thing, but I bet Seiji had a crush on Marcus Washington when he was a kid--Nick's horror, Harvard's teasing, and Seiji's indignant blush imply as much.

And a fun fact, Jo posted a mini preview of baby Seiji to Patreon on February 14th...maybe I'm reading into it too much, but that's nothing new XD

Next couple of things are about the scene with the trophy case. It was really interesting and fun to see side-by-side redraws of Robert! It really illustrates the way the style has evolved, and also I gOTTA say it feels like Jo is more invested in Robert based on the level of detail she put in--like it's not just a style comparison, it's also just obvious a lot of attention was put into these shots when a) she could have just reused old shots (which she's done before, so I know it was an option), or kept it more simplified like she did when drawing the original shots.

I also think it's sweet that the redraws have Robert looking much more like Jesse than the originals.

And I am sure I will get flack for this, but I have incredible second-hand embarrassment from Nick leaving his newspaper clipping + note in the trophy case jfhdasl like bestieee noooo anyone can see that shit now oh my god please stooop

Onto some Nichoji thoughts! I love that Seiji's been confirmed as a before-bed reader! Him having a Kindle makes sense for the sheer efficiency of it too lmfao. Of course it's also adorable to see him in reading glasses <3 And then my favorite detail is Nick's stupid nightlight...notice where it is?

Rather than illuminating Nick's side of the room, it's peeking around the curtain and lighting up Seiji's reading, which is beyond adorable and sweet. I wonder whether Seiji stole it or Nick put it there knowing Seiji likes to read before bed, and I love both scenarios.

Also, it's fucking adorable that as soon as Nick mentions their date appointment, Seiji takes off his glasses and lowers his Kindle because it's got his full attention and investment.

And a quick pitstop to the locker rooms!

I like the visual metaphor here with Aiden and Bobby both very casual about changing and both literally having their shirts open; meanwhile, Seiji's straightening the cuffs on his button-down, which is already neatly tucked in and complete with his tie. It just highlights how Seiji's a lot more closed off than the others, and I think this was a neat trick to remind us of that.

In regards to plot, I'm still...really disappointed in the pacing. I know most people feel like it's a slowburn/it's taken a long time to develop, but if you waited to read Fence at all until it was complete and then read it all in one sitting, I think you'd see how unbalanced it is. Williams says that their first match will be in three weeks back right after tryouts:

which means everything between issue 12 and CHALLENGERS has happened in 3 weeks. Seiji and Nick's relationship is so sweet and cute, but it went from resentful rivalry to puppy love overnight with very little 'screen time' dedicated to the actual transition from resentment to friends (which I could write a whole essay on but this is not the post for that lmfao). Furthermore, the fact that it's the first match of State Championships rather than first match of the season is crazy to me. I'll admit, I didn't fence in high school--it wasn't even an option because we didn't have a team. And despite hours of research, the structure of high school team fencing is not entirely clear to me. However, I do know that typical high school sports go through the season, facing every other team in their division or whatever. Based on performance in those matches, they can qualify for state, and then their win ratio determines their seeding order for the state championships that happen in like 1-2 days. Seeding order is who you go up against in a bracket, so it's what this diagram is, basically:

(side note, but it appears there are 24 schools competing at state). Again, fencing could be different, but it kinda seems to me like we skipped over the season and went right to State Championships, which just cuts out so much development and build-up. It's like we're speed-running the entire story to get to the end faster. We cut out showing the development in the romance, and now we're cutting out the development of the plot. There's still plenty that we can do at state, of course, but imagine how much more it would mean to see Nick fencing in front of Robert if we'd built that up more. I just don't understand how we spent 12 issues on try outs, 4 on a practice match, 8 on camp, and none on the fencing season. It feels so abrupt and unbalanced. Tryouts and camp were my favorites arcs because they felt pretty well-paced as self-contained pieces of the story. I just feel like we needed waaaaay more relationship development between those two arcs to be satisfying, and I feel like there should be waaaaay more build up during the fencing season between camp and State Championships.

and now, the moment you've all been waiting for: my devastation over Eugene's role (???) in the story. I honestly question why he's in the story at all--at this point, it would have made more sense to have him flat-out not make the team. Except that keeping him this long lowkey backs up the theory I've had on his role since Striking Distance/RIVALS: Eugene is here to make everyone else look better/cooler/more impressive. The very first thing that struck me when reading the first look was this:

The dialogue here suggests that only one reserve actually gets to be on the team in the end, and the reserve is Nick. And, worse, everyone expected it to be Nick. Sure, it's sweet that Seiji thinks Nick's the better fencer, but all I can think about is how hard Eugene's worked for ten years trying to make the team as opposed to Nick's three months of fencing. Now, I love an underdog story. But it's interesting because Pacat stated in an interview (I'd have to go find where for the specific quote) that he always feels bad for the person who's been working to be #1 their whole lives only to be knocked out of the running by an upstart underdog--which I've always assumed would influence the path taken in Fence...and it seems like we may well let Seiji and Jesse remain above Nick in skill (or at least it seems like we won't be dethroning Seiji, even if we go for Jesse), but Nick's overcoming smaller obstacles. And those smaller obstacles hurt worse to see crushed because Eugene almost made the team in a way that mattered, only to have that taken away. It would have been less cruel to him and his fans to let Nick take the reserve slot back in issue 12, but instead we brought Eugene along to serve as a means to make Nick out 'secret weapon' and elevate his story.

I will say though, this page is one of my favorite Eugene moments because I see the character I selfishly want Eugene to be in it. From the context of the panels above, this page is likely Williams telling them that only one will be fencing in State Championships, and this is their reaction. Eugene's immediate concern for Nick and the comforting hand on his shoulder followed by a bright smile and a thumbs up--he just cares so much about other people and it so used to smiling through his own pain/disappointment and comforts Nick through being positive (and as seen back in issue 12, up playing his competitiveness) and acting like it's no big deal.

Eugene deserved better, but if this is where he goes out, I think I can live with it. Better to see him go now than continue to be a means to uplift the rest of team by being less than. but, man, I was really hoping we were turning it around after his moment in REDEMPTION being the only KR boy not to lose his bout

anyway, thank you sm for listening to my rambles!!! <33

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

...Can you tell I really like Invader Zim and Hollow Knight?

Anyways uh- REFERENCES FOR ALL OF MY Z-O-M-B-I-E-S MONSTER HEADCANNONS WOOOOOOO FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!! These are all rlly self indulgent tbh, especially all the alien headcannons, but in mY DEFENSE! I can do whatever the fuck I want lmfao. Which means pointless patches of darker skin in very specific places on the zombies, references to raccoon Wyatt and alien lore that you have to do olympic level mental gymnastics to fit into the plot of the movies WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

The ref sheet for the Armistian's true form is kinda old(and I've actually posted it on here before lmao), but I haven't actually changed anything about their designs besides like, a couple minor alterations to the colors, and I genuinely think the art holds up to my current standards, so I decided to just reuse those refs instead of redrawing them entirely. Also for the record I have a LOT more headcannons about the aliens, the werewolves and some rewrites to zombie lore to make zombieism more akin to a chronic illness then a race thing, I just don't feel like putting them in these ref sheets. Because that would take a lot more effort then I am willing to put in rn. Feel free to send me asks abt them tho!!! I love infodumping abt my Z-O-M-B-I-E-S headcannons and rewrites :D

My least favorite parts of drawing refs and stuff are one; I have to draw the characters in their underwear half the time so I fully understand where different markings and shit are supposed to go, which makes me feel weeeeird, and two; I never have the energy to give the characters unique poses and shit cuz I have to draw and write so much shit that they all end up just fuckin. Staring blankly at the camera. It makes me uncomfyyyyyy-

Also the "very strong bones" bit on Addison & Bucky's refs is a TFB reference. Because I am insane.

Ignore the fact that I'm literally posting this in the middle of the night I had a really hard time finishing Bucky's ref okay-

@imjustavenuxwithaboomerang

[duplicityvn]

progress report 5-26/27 :: BIG UPDATE!!

LET'S GOOOO I FINISHED THE DRAFT FOR PART ONE!!

8,585 words have been added since my last update, bringing the total to 27,150 words.

5,889 of those was done today. (my session target reset because it's just a little after midnight for me rn)

So, what's next?

-Editing: I'll be going over the draft and adding more scenes/words/etc as needed.

-Working on various assets: I'm going to be redoing the GUI because I don't like it anymore LMFAO but I'll fully finish that up. Also will be making various other assets like the mini-CGs and splashscreen.

-Working on backgrounds: I'll be drawing all backgrounds by hand and trying to get those out of the way.

-Working on sprites: I'll be working on everyone's sprites and will be posting their character cards once they're finished.

-Coding: I'll be writing the code for part one and plugging in all the images.

-Music: I'll be looking for music (might reuse the old ones I found in the OG demo ngl) and plugging that into the script as well.

-CGs: I'll make the CGs and plug them in last.

-Beta testing: I'll be reaching out to look for a couple beta testers.

-Release: Once all of the above has been met (not particularly in that order) I'll announce a release date and get it ready to go!!

Waah I'm so excited!! I can't wait to share sneak peeks of the assets and the first looks at the sprites and character cards :3

Also this serves as another announcement: @winndycakes has been added onto the project as my draft editor! When I'm done with edits, I'll send it to them for final touches before moving on to the assets. I'll be editing the pinned post to reflect her generous addition.

[bugbuoyx]

About Me

You've got the basic rundown from my sidebar but what else could there be? So much more obviously lol. This is really long so read at your own risk. I’m only posting this to pin it :P Edit: This is the most recent version of the tumblr pride flags post! There is a list of flags I have done in the replies

Anyways I'm a queer transmasculine guy who's gender is best describe as la croix boy, sparkling guy, or guy-adjacent. I present masculinely in public as well as obviously queer. I’m also mlm/nblm meaning I’m gay and I like dudes.

I am not subtle about being queer at all in any shape or form, nor do I censor or tag it or any other slurs. Being queer is an essential part of my identity, one you can not remove without erasing a part of me. The intersection between my gender and sexuality is complex and I don’t really care for microlabels for myself.

Besides that I have hobbies! Too many of them! I crochet just about anything I’ve done 10in amogus’s, shawls (I love making shawls even though they’re not my style), and useful things like pot holders and wash cloths! I’m also getting into cross stitch. I draw as well as keep bugs. I forget to tag things alot but I usually tag “bugs” “spider” “arachnid” etc. I’m awkward so I don’t post much myself but I reblog stuff about transmascs, the queer community, bugs, and whatever I find funny. This is my old blog from like 2014-2018 that I’m reusing out of laziness so if you’re trying to dig up dirt on me please check post dates lmfao. I am much different now than I was when I was 14-18.

Some of my views: - I (and bigots) don’t give a fuck about slur discourse in respect to the queer community. I’m not gonna censor them, especially if it’s in regards to a persons identity. For example I’m not gonna say “The D*ke March” or the “D-slur March” because I respect them and their right to reclaim and identify themselves. If you ask me to tag tranny, faggot, dyke, etc. you’re better off blocking me/those words and moving on. If you ask me to tag queer, you’re the one catching a block.

- Trans people can not oppress each other on the basis of being trans, but they can hurt eachother personally. A transmasc can perpetuate transmisogyny but trans guys do not oppress trans women/vice versa. - Anti-transmasculinity exists. Actually I’ll go a step further, misandry does exist and mainly manifests against oppressed groups though it is also spread by radfem groups. - Radfems catch a block, I don’t care if you are “trans friendly”, radical feminism is inherently transphobic. Men and Masculinity are not inherently evil, disgusting, or violent and can exist in non-toxic ways. Alongside that, femininity can be toxic and weaponized, such as radical feminism and false rape accusations.

- I don’t want to get into shipping discourse but I lean more pro-ship. I believe censorship demonstrably and inevitably leads to the silencing of minority communities. Tumblr is ironically a good example of this seeing as the porn ban also lead to trans women being labelled “nsfw” for simply existing.

[jade-doodles-questionmark]

The Gallery

[foxofsunholt]

Dude, seriously those fake VN caps are so fuckin' good like... I'd throw all my money at you if was a real thing (i mean, im gonna throw my money at you once FOS is finished and I can actually do it anyway but.. yea)

Thank you!!!!! I really liked making them lol And I’ve tried to make VNs before but they’re a lot of work on your own (esp if they’re longer) so the best case scenario is AFTER fos is all done I can think about some sort of visual novel remaster in a year or two or something? 

ALTHOUGH HOLD ON let’s go on a journey of (some) of the visual novels I’ve tried to make in like highschool (most of them are just menus I coded and then gave up on the rest)

this was my first one (you never forget your first they say) it was a paraody-ish? inspired by? idk. basically boys over flowers but with girls? i just finished watching the korean drama version and I was like what if this…..but gay?

the menus were designed like a multiple choice test and they scratched out when you highlighted one but this was as far as I got with this project lol

this was actually a comedy RPG which had a pretty neat premise. might revisit it lol i gave up when I was trying to design conversations (i wanted them to be cutscene style like fire emblem but I didn’t work out)

1) look at my horrible highschool art 2) why are they so far apart lmfao I don’t think I knew how to code them to be closer 3) WHEN YOU CAN’T DRAW CLOTHES SO YOU JUST GIVE YOUR OLD LADY A GIANT CLOAK

I don’t think this game had a logo but it was basically Eureka 7 but like with twins and also cooler 

when ya game so crazy it needs a tutorial

i think i reused this idea in another game lmfao

idk why all my designs had such big fonts okay like calm down highschool me we can read

I WISH I DID

never mind past me knew what was up

the ball in the corner was the “skytendant” and you could hit it for the menu

this was another game and i don’t think it had an idea i think i just wanted to design a phone menu and oh god is it ugly

this is an equally ugly overview map for fast travel for the same game

this game is actually all done asset wise (sorta?) you cant see it but the background animates. now that i’ve loaded it up….pretty cool idea? like it get what I was trying to do with the game. It was a jazzy, GBA-aesthetic thing and…not horrible?

NOT HORRIBLE

the demon guy is a love interest but not with that tracksuit honey (the knife is the cursor)

I know I have more projects around somewhere but idk what folders I stuffed them into. here’s one that was more recent but I can’t find anything about it except for this shirtless demon man

oop found another logo

[arvoze]

heres those design notes etc that i had in mind when making nitoto, im gonna post her first/og image since its the thought process in my head ig

so the thing w nitoto is that like, i THINK she came after tepopo? if im remembering correctly. actually i think chikuku came after tepopo but i did him on photoshop and not mspaint So!

tepopo was a stretch design-wise and was VERY deliberately like, not-casual-keronian .. and i wanted to follow that through with nitoto. and for a while in my mind i had the thought of, “what about a keronian whos main power is knitting stuff?”

like, yanno, that one really old tumblr post with the knitting superhero that i can’t be bothered to google

i REALLY wanted to get it through that like .. she’s a very. knit-loving person. like she had to show this in her design, before she moves, before she speaks, you need to be able to know just from LOOKING at her that she’s got an affiliation with fabric and stuff. i was hesitant on how to show it, but had an idea with the hat anyways, and then remembered that yukiki exists and that he’s similar:

a canon character had fabric-like appendages for a hat so i KNEW i’d be alright using it. and i didn’t really wanna just like, do the same as yukiki, and i figured considering she’s female - and a lot of female keronians have those little head bumps - i wanted to go the extra mile and just give her a REALLY long hat, and make the little bumps just look like fabric that’s been piled up to look like those bumps (which is actually a big fuckin pain whenever i draw her lmfao).

additionally, a show i watched VERY little of, hero 108, came to mind when i was trying to figure out her hat + scarf. mystique sonia (hero 103) is actually the only character i remember from the show, because i always remembered her animate hat, and initially planned for nitoto’s hat to be the animate object

(them both being purple was entirely coincidental - i remember just googling the most common colours of yarn and shrugging and being satisfied with purples and blues).

i really, REALLY love animate objects, especially when they’re weaponized. i wasn’t comfortable with the hat being animate in the end, and felt like just the hat wouldn’t work .. like nitoto needed something else to make her more recognisable and like. interesting? but i REALLY didn’t want to go over the top - i HATE going over the top with character designs and making stuff complicated, so i went with something simple like a scarf.

which THEN reminded me of one of my favourite objects (?idk the specific name) from xiaolin showdown: the third-arm sash.

i LOVED this show and the third-arm sash was always a personal favourite, and i used it for inspiration w/ nitoto

or well.

i would have, if the third-arm sash wasn’t the object i had in mind for an older oc who i don’t use anymore and never used much in the first place: JoD.

JoD is actually the thing that the majority of inspiration was drawn from wrt nitoto. JoD has arms that are essentially scarves (seen above), has three of those (only  one is shown in this image) and has .. 5 little finger-like protrusions at the end. most of nitoto’s functionality with the hat + scarf comes from JoD, but since i never used them much, i didn’t really care about technically just reusing assets.

in most cases, whenever i design an orikero, i have a form of unique weapon in mind for them. for nitoto, i was already comfortable with the scarf, but realised i needed something extra. something i’d only have one chance to use, which was.. knitting needles. and take a wild fucking guess which character i used as reference for having those kinds of objects as a melee weapon.

yeah anyways,

that’s pretty much it ig? nitoto’s symbol is two needles crossing like an X (deliberately similar to the bones in a skull and crossbones). they’ve got the little circular knob thing on them because i wanted them smh.

the circles are at the top on her head, but on her stomach it’s reversed so that the circles are on the bottom, and the reason for that is literally honestly only because having them on the top on her stomach felt like some really weird implied boob placement.

anyways

[groundramon]

Its only been 15ish minutes but I’m still thinking about this post and I really like how instead of being offended about the outrageous displays of sexism in the exact field im going into, instead of being mad that a show I really enjoy was canceled prematurely/at a spoiler (? so I’ve heard, like I’ve said I’m only on season 3 so...), I’m just like “WHAT DO YOU MEAN TERRA WOULD’VE GOTTEN MORE SCREENTIME IN SEASON 6″

That says a lot about where my priorities lie.  Like sexism in the children’s television industry and division in the toy industry are two things I’d love to work against once I get into the industry (I mean im not planning to change the world lmfao but I can try) considering both fields are close to my heart and I’ll probably be working with them extensively once I get a job (not sure how involved I’ll be in merchandising but I’d like to have at least some hand in it), and I hate enforcing gender roles on kids (do you know how fucked up I’d be if my parents didn’t let me play with “masculine” toys like dragons, Pokemon figures, ect-), but Terra is more important.

My obsession aside, I do wonder how much that’s changed in recent years.

Teen Titans aired from 2003 to 2006, and honestly I think sexism had the biggest grip on children’s television in that time period than any other time period.  Sure other older shows would just...not show females in equal roles to their male counterparts, but in the early 2000s, either you did that too or you made a big deal about your female character being given equal treatment to her male counterpart.  Oh boy, look at Rika from Digimon Tamers, it’s so WEIRD that she’s a GIRL and she’s SO GOOD AT TAMING AND THE CARD GAME, wOWEE.  I give Digimon Tamers a lot of slack for that because it was extremely realistic about its sexism lmao (Henry never said anything about Rika being a girl, Jerry and Rika were both treated as equals in the overarching narrative, ect) but my point still stands.  Teen Titans is really good about how it treats its female characters, but I can still see the fingerprints of this era all over it, from its character designs (DRAW RAVEN WITH A THICKER WAIST YOU COWARDS) to its choreography (if Starfire gets wrapped up by one more tentacle I s2g-)  They also both have male-dominated casts but like...what show doesn’t?  Steven Universe, and then shows specifically targeted towards females?  And like, I’m not gonna sit here and yell at shows from the early 2000s because these were the better shows out there, they tried their best.  I can find a more sexist show airing nowadays easily, and like whatever, plenty of shows have done just as bad if not worse and I’m just using those as examples because I’ll stan those shows til i die.  I’m just sayin, it’s not surprising given the time period.  (I also have no idea how ATLA survived and thrived in the late 2000s, seriously what the fuck, how did Nickelodeon do something right in those years)

Fastforward to nowadays though, and while male-dominated casts are still the...well everything except Steven Universe and female-oriented shows, there are so many shows that really don’t seem to appeal to a particular gender.  If you made me pick, I’d say shows like Steven Universe, Adventure Time, and We Bare Bears are probably aimed at 7-10 year old boys.  But honestly?  They’re relatively ageless and genderless shows; SU and AT are both adventure-comedies, and We Bare Bears is about as gender-neutral as a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  And I already mentioned that SU is like the only cartoon I can think of that doesn’t have a male-dominated main cast and isn’t targeted exclusively at girls.

One thing that the 2010s have brought that I really appreciate is ageless, genderless shows that aren’t just there to sell toys.  Sure you can find merchandise for AT and SU (I cant find any WBB merchandise though :( i wouldnt mind an ice bear plushie but its fine...im fine...) but it was never their primary goal.

Green Lantern was canceled in 2013, and while that doesn’t seem that long ago, that was actually four years ago (jesus christ why am I so old).  Young Justice was canceled the same year, but it was announced last year that it’d be returning for a new season.  Legend of Korra was canceled in 2012, meaning it could’ve easily been part of the same sexism in the industry that killed Green Lantern and Young Justice.  I did hear something about there being concern from Nickelodeon executives about Korra being a girl, but the writing team was allowed to proceed when a test screening showed that boys didnt care about her gender (surprise surprise! kids arent sexist assholes until you teach them to be. who knew? oh yeah I FUCKING DID) so...

Yes shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe were out or coming out around this time, but the industry hadn’t made the shift in mindset yet.  Adventure Time was a hit at the time, but like Avatar: The Last Airbender, it was an outlier, a show that was picked up for so many seasons and just too big to kill when its contract was up.  But with shows like Steven Universe, Clarence, We Bare Bears, ect...the cartoon industry has become a lot more gender-neutral in my eyes.

The group that networks are most concerned with appealing to now is 90s kids.  The hip thing to do is play with nostalgia and reuse old properties, for whatever gender people you want.  That’s why Teen Titans Go is still playing when it appeals to people of all genders, despite Teen Titans doing the same thing (in an arguably better show) a decade ago.

But one thing I dont understand is 90s cartoons.  90s cartoons - the original CN cartoons, the original Nicktoons, the original Disney cartoons - none of them seemed particularly...gendered.  Like anyone could relate to Hey Arnold.  Courage the Cowardly Dog was scary no matter your gender.  Everyone loved Ducktales - altho I guess Disney isn’t behind any of the situations i mentioned before (it’s mostly CN and then a little bit of Nickelodeon, but I do know Disney’s done some...kinda shady shit and does have a tendency to gender its shows, but idk if it’s ever canceled a show for that reason)  I dont know.  I wish I had the motivation and resources to do more research, but I’m just some idiot on the internet lmao.

I guess my point is that Teen Titans, The Legend of Korra, and related shows would likely be much better off if they were airing in 2017.