#tried to make text more readable ig

[xxdarkxmoth17xx]

Murder Drones LGBT headcanon thingy remake I dunno uhh

[salmonrainy]

✏ bratfeen first date comic process! 💕

ok !! this is kind of a new thing that i’m trying out, which is that i’m just gonna ramble about my process about certain pieces/comics/Whatevers that i draw! 

i’ll just be talking about my thoughts, drawing process, and also some struggles i had as i drew the whole thing. so if you’re interested in reading through all that and seeing some sketches/other bonus bits, keep on reading ! :-)c

(warning: v text heavy + veeery long post ahead! i get rambly LOL)

obligatory disclaimer: i’m a self-taught hobbyist artist so take everything i say with a grain of salt! i’m no pro and am not stating that i am one -- this is just my process. if you learn literally Anything from it, that’s super cool! :-Dc anyway, enjoy reading!

: : ♡ : :

OK !! god so this comic was SO fun to make, i had a great time planning things out, (mostly dialogue bubbles and where drawings will be cus i just love dialogue LOL) and also had a great time fussing about w 983749 overlays n whatnot (also becus feenie but shhh)

n e way since i really wanted this to come out good (+ just to get a general idea of how each page is going to be laid out) i made some thumbnails for each page! (shown below)

they’re very small, barebones, and very silly, but by making it i knew what i was kinda going for + it gave me a general idea of the layout of dialogue bubbles and where drawings will be (ig that’d be considered the composition? i’m not sure LOL). i always love planning out where bubbles will be in relation to the drawings (because i’m pretty sure that, with comics, dialogue bubbles kind of guide the reader’s eye through the page) so this was fun for me! i tried to keep the flow of the bubbles in mind to make sure everything was readable throughout the entire process of making this comic. also, with making thumbnails, i try to be quick about it, since i can fuss with the nitty-gritty of each page later on.

(ouuh but also notice that i didn’t really have anything planned for the Feenie Reveal page (the bottom right rectangle). that’s cause i just really had no idea how i wanted to draw him in at the time i was making thumbnails. this actually ended up making things v troublesome for me later on T_T (but we’ll get to that later!))

i then started out making more refined sketches of what each page is going to be like (shown below this paragraph; im sorry the pics are so big/make the post so long, tumblr formatting is a$$ T_T). to do this i basically just sized up each thumbnail to the size of the canvas and made more detailed sketches of what each page is going to be. this is kind of an important step, since this is what i later based my final lines off of (but i also don’t really have a streamlined process for making comics yet so i do tend to go back and forth with sketching & lines LOL). i also wrote in some of the dialogue here, just to make sure that the dialogue makes sense (though i did change/add some things later on!)

after that i just started going ham with drawing. as mentioned before, i don’t have a streamlined process with making comics so i still jump around between steps because my attention span is -7. i tried working on one page at a time, but again, -7 attention span, so i end up jumping between working on pages half the time LOL . . .

when i started putting down colours i struggled a bit since, initially, the colours i put down just didn’t seem right. i knew i wanted a dark background to represent it being like night time, but trying to make the colours of the lines, the characters, and other things work out was a wholeass mental workout. throughout struggling with the colours i always made sure to check the values of everything (chat bubbles, characters) to make sure everything makes a cohesive piece! i don’t have any pics for the colour process specifically, but i can show y’all the flats for the boys’ main fits:

after i laid down all my flats i just went ham with shading. i did two multiply layers for each characters; one for like cel shading & another for a more soft shading look. i also just went ham with the background since i discovered the beauty that is the luminance brushes on procreate. i used the pulse brush a lot just to add more life & colour into the background of most of the panels, since most of them were just a plain dark colour at that time & that’s just boring LOL

: : :

REAL QUICK b4 we continue !!! i wanna talk about my feenie struggle. god, idk whats up with this one but this feenie gave me SOOO much trouble 😭😭😭 maybe this is due to the lack of planning in the thumbnail stage, but i really have no clue T_T i usually have such a Good & Easy time drawing him T____T </3 (i think i just need to do more studies for the human body + face from diff angles. . . LOL . . .) 

but yeah ! for the final page i think i redrew him like 3-4 times total bc i couldn’t nail his pose + face down; i nailed miles in like the first or second go. i also had to like resize miles & feenie at some points bc they didn’t take up As Much Space in the panels as i’d like, since i didn’t want there to be an awkward thing of just Blank Space in the comic (if that makes sense). so that’s something i’m still trying to learn !

ok back to the main process LOL ⬇⬇⬇

: : :

after all of that i just finished up the dialogue bubbles + text. also, real quick add-on: throughout the whole process i keep going back to make sure that the dialogue bubbles + character drawings r balanced out & has a nice flow! also also, with the text/dialogue i debated using my handwriting vs the text tool for dialogue. i wanted a more Organic feel so i wanted to use my handwriting, but then realized my handwriting is absolute sh!t so i just used the text tool LOL 

after adding in the text, i keep moving things around (bc, again, probs due to a lack of planning) and just fussed with everything until i like how things look. i added overlay layers, a lot of bokeh effect things, found a brush that did a heart bokeh thing (bless the person who created that btw holy sh1t), added a flat colour layer (i think i used a pink-ish colour) with the noise effect to add Texture etc etc. 

and then i was pretty much done ! :-Dc 

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if you’ve reached this far, holy shit, i genuinely thank you so much! i reaaally love rambling about m’process, so thanks for sticking around :-]c 💖💞 !!! if you haven’t read the comic (??? why r u reading this then LOL) / just maybe wanna check it out again after reading this, click here to go read it!

last thing before i go: support me on ko-fi! it’s absolutely not necessary, but if you like what i make and wanna send me a little tip, i’d appreciate it a ton. :-Dc 

thank you 4 reading + have a wonderful day ! 💖💕

[k0ushii]

Obey Me HC: Writing and Texting

Demon Brothers ver.

i wanted to make this headcanon because i haven't seen anyone done it yet and their texting styles are MOSTLY the same. but ig its like that because game translations have proper grammar by default

Lucifer

- Left handed

- Handwriting is in neat cursive (and i guess he's always doing calligraphy?)

- Can't afford to let it go sloppy even when he's really tired, so he always makes sure it looks perfect

- Rushes when he writes especially when he's super busy

- As for texting, Proper punctuation and capitalization, always

Mammon

- Ambidextrous

- There's no real reason why i hc that, i just thought it be cool

- Ey, get tired with writing with one hand? use the other

- Handwriting kinda looks wack, but that's because he always rushes. Still very readable tho

- As for texting, his keyboard auto capitals the sentence, but doesn't bother to add punctuation

Levi

- Ambidextrous

- Usually types instead of actually writing but it's kinda wack when he does

- He sacrificed good handwriting for art skills ksmskssksk

- Writing speed is like, average ig (he be spamming at the speed of light on keyboard lmao)

- Somewhat ok punctuation when he rants on the internet, but that all flies away when actual texting

- He actually does use emojis but not as often

Satan

- Right handed

- He's got like, neat handwriting

- It's simple, readable, and it's nice to look at

- Tho you can tell he's getting agitated when he presses into the paper harshly

- Used to accidentally make a hole on the paper because of that

- Subconsciously grips pen tightly out of habit

- Texting is p much just proper punctuation and capitalization

Asmodeus

- Right handed

- Clean, neat, and in cursive

- The most beautiful demon must have the most beautiful handwriting am I right-

- Mostly never rushed

- Other than that, one notable thing about his texting is that he uses emojis

- Also knows about some internet slang, he knows all the tea

Beelzebub

- Ambidextrous

- How it happened is he's eating with his original dominant hand but he also needs to write so he uses the other

- Presses hard into the paper without noticing it

- Handwriting is a little messy but you can still somewhat read it

- For texting, he tried making it proper punctuation and capitalization and all that, but often forgets

- Texting gets a little slower when he's eating

Belphegor

- Left handed

- Sloppy handwriting, you can barely read it

- It's also pretty rushed

- Sometimes makes spelling mistakes but he's too lazy to use correction tape (do they even have them?), so he just scribbles it out or just forge the right letters on it

- Now for his texting, there's like, no punctuation, and all lowercase

- And the sleepier he gets, the more typos there are

- Despite that, he's actually fast at typing

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, early October 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across in the first part of October, although some may be older than that.

[I am out of town for nearly a week in late October, so don’t expect another update until the end of the month at the earliest.]

Just a reminder - you don’t need to read everything here! I try to organize the material by topic and provide a brief summary so that you can easily skip things you don’t need to read. 

I’ve tried to improve the layout for better readability, by bolding key words in each paragraph - do you find that helpful, or too hard on the eyes?  Leave a comment below, email me through my website, or send me a message on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

14 elements that will help your product pages get sales. Trust badges & reviews can really make a difference. Also, here’s a really simple explanation of how your descriptions should try to sell the product: “Bridge the gap between features and benefits: A feature is essentially a fact about your product or offer. The benefit mainly answers how a feature is useful for your customer. Tell them exactly “how” a particular feature is useful for them, and “why” they should make this purchase. Product descriptions that bridge the gap between features and benefits can lessen buyer’s guilt and ease the buying decision.” 

It’s time for holiday season forecasts! Halloween spending is expected to be steady. While some are predicting up to a 4-5% increase in US November-December retail spending this year, others are worried about consumer debt. There is still “a stubborn wealth gap in the United States that appears to be once again worsening and in fact is "the biggest it’s ever been." The Gini index, a standard economic measure of income inequality, for the U.S. in 2018 was "significantly higher" than 2017, after widening steadily for the last 50 years, according to a Sept. 26 report from the U.S. Census Bureau.” Note that online retailers are finding that the holiday season is less crucial than it used to be, since people shop online all year now. “...the holiday season accounted for almost 24% of all retailers’ sales in the late 1990s, but is closer to 21% today.” Finally, “A late Thanksgiving this year, falling on Nov. 28, means there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than in 2018. In fact, 2019 is the shortest possible holiday calendar scenario”.[emphasis added by me]

Kansas state tax collection on online sales is in question after the lack of a minimum on revenue or orders is criticized. The dictate kicked in October 1st, requiring any business selling anything in the state to register, which didn’t exempt small businesses as other states have done. This is important - if they manage to apply this tax to even the smallest businesses, and win any court challenges, other states are likely to follow suit. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy released a new stats page last week, which like most things they do these days, isn’t finished yet. You can read the announcement here, and a more detailed explanation here, including a discussion of the conversion rate numbers now provided. [I don’t find those very useful on Etsy, as I find I get a lot of visits that are not from buyers, such as people checking out my SEO.] Also note that there will be a Q & A thread this week in the forum, starting October 14th at 10 am EDT. 

When a listing is clicked from any search, there is now a link at the top saying “Back to search results” which only goes to page one of the search on Etsy, not the page you were on. It even does this when someone clicks on your item from a search of your shop. 

They made some recent improvements to the buyer app, including integrating shop names into the regular search. No need to tag with your exact shop name! (Mobile & desktop search also work the same way; the app was the last hold out.)

More holiday marketing tips continue to roll out, including this one on merchandising. It includes a list of holidays at the end (although Canadian Thanksgiving was just 5 days away on the date of publication, so that seems to have been a waste of space). Potentially more useful to some of us is the transcript of the podcast on shopper behaviour during the holidays. [includes links to the podcast if you would rather listen] “9% of our buyers do the bulk of their shopping in late December right before the holidays” and “On Etsy specifically, searches around the holidays spike for gifts in conjunction with a descriptor of the recipient. We see searches like “gifts for grandma,” “gifts for boyfriend,” and “unique gift for a friend” spike.” Finally, “In terms of uniqueness, 90% of Etsy buyers would rather give a unique or one-of-a-kind gift.” They also cover some specific research on holiday shopping patterns in the UK & Germany, compared to the US. 

There is a new help file on search called Beginner’s Guide to Etsy Search, and while it is up to date, I am not sure why it is needed, when they already have a page (they even link to it) called “How Etsy Search Works”, which isn’t as up to date. If they are planning on releasing new instructions, as they told me months ago, they are going about it really, really slowly. 

Etsy Ireland lost money last year, apparently due to the DaWanda deal. “Etsy, whose mission is to “keep commerce human”, faced a wave of criticism from users after designating its business in Ireland as an unlimited liability company in 2015 so that it didn’t have to publicly disclose financial information about the unit. The company has, however, published annual accounts for the subsidiary for both 2017 and last year.”

Meanwhile, free shipping & Etsy Ads have produced quite a stock boost for the main company. “KeyBanc’s comments were echoed by Canaccord Genuity, which earlier this week wrote that the company’s initiatives were driving “robust growth and improving profitability.” Analyst Maria Ripps called free shipping “an important step in bringing Etsy’s platform closer to par” with other e-commerce leaders like Amazon.com Not only will free shipping improve “consumer perception around the platform,” but she estimated that it could add upside of 3%-5% upside to 2020 estimates for both revenue and adjusted Ebitda. The company’s Etsy Ads initiative, she added, “should ultimately attract high affinity customers with strong repeat purchase behavior.”  Also, they noted that no major analysts no recommend selling the stock - most say “buy”, with a few saying “hold”. 

Etsy partnered with Blackrock Emergency Savings Initiative to help US sellers deal with the financial pressures of self-employment. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google’s advice on how to get your category pages to rank well is worth reading: among other things, you shouldn’t keyword stuff. 

If you want your content to get the featured “0” position at the top of Google search, you should check out this article on featured snippets, or this Whiteboard Friday from Moz. [video & transcript]

More analysis of Google’s September core update shows that it may not have been as dramatic as the June update, but “your money, your life” (YMYL) sites still seem the most affected. SEMRush said the biggest winners were “DailyMail, eBackPage.com, lasd.org and marionschool.net. The biggest losers were TheFourMusic.com, Monks.org, BraidingClub.com, PascoLibraries.org and RoyalCaribbean.com.au.” Other case studies saw a lot of change in health and medical sites. 

Another study states that websites still get most of their traffic from organic search. 

If your own website isn’t ranking on Google, there are numerous fixable reasons, although some are more difficult than others. 

Google says that HTML sitemaps aren’t necessary to good SEO. 

If you are getting less organic traffic to your Patreon page recently, that could be because their SEO team accidentally de-indexed the entire site. It’s been fixed, but it could affect some pages for the next few weeks, if Google doesn’t recrawl you right away. 

YouTube is the 4th most visited website, so improving your YouTube SEO can provide a huge boost in traffic. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

Facebook’s experiment on hiding like counts has rolled out in Australia. (Articles looks at the sociological studies behind this)

Instagram launched an account posting tips for “creators”, which the author notes does not focus on making money off of that content. 

They have also expanded their Shopping part of the app, however, which is about making money. 

And IG has released a Snapchat challenger called Threads, a standalone app run by Facebook. Techcrunch did a more detailed review & analysis. Right now, it doesn’t have any ads & they say they have no plans to add them. 

Hubspot uses their own Snapchat account experience as a case study in how to make Snap work for business. (includes video & step-by-step instructions, if you are new to Snapchat.)

Twitter and Tweetdeck had a bad outage for several hours October 1-2, and it still isn't clear what happened. 

If you use Twitter for your business, you should also be using Twitter lists. (I use Tweetdeck to organize mine.)

Now that it is working again, here are the best-performing hashtags on Twitter over the past few years. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Hubspot’s comprehensive guide to Google Ads is completely up to date for all new developments, and covers search ads as well as ads across Google’s network. [video and text]

They also put out a Facebook ad checklist, with video, text & screenshots. 

And they also did a guide to YouTube advertising. [video and text]

Research and ad placement are key to getting better conversion from Facebook ads. 

Gen Z (younger than millennials) don’t yet have full purchase strength as a cohort, but they influence buying in their households after seeing ads on Snapchat. Since Gen Z shows the least brand loyalty of any generation, it's necessary to reach them in new ways.

Shopify now has an integration with Microsoft Ads, which include all Verizon properties (Yahoo, AOL). More than 116 million Americans use Bing searches each month in some way. 

LinkedIn has improved its ad tools, including audience forecasting. 

Quora has improved ad targeting; they say they have over 300 million monthly users. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

Advanced tips for site search in Google Analytics can get more out of the data than you thought was there.  

Facebook will likely be paying out $40 million to settle a lawsuit for grossly overreporting video watching stats, including video ads. 

Google Search Console is now reporting a lot fewer links for websites than in the past; it’s not clear if this is a bug or not. 

The Console is now reporting on your videos.

Everything you need to know about Pinterest Analytics. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

If you use abandoned cart emails on your website, make sure they are optimized for conversions. 

Ecommerce fraud rates are definitely increasing. “... digital goods have seen such an increase in fraud because they often have a streamlined purchase process that requires less information than other items.”

Google launched its new Shopping pages, which is not the same as Google Shopping but is connected to it, and allows buyers to check out on Google rather than retailer websites. 

Amazon apparently surveyed Handmade sellers recently asking how they felt about Amazon Handmade.

Will Amazon face consequences in the US for its competitive activities? It’s looking more likely now. “Bloomberg reported in August that Amazon was dropping sellers' products in searches on its site if they priced a product cheaper on rival sites, behavior the news service noted could draw antitrust scrutiny.”

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

We all have difficult customers occasionally - here are 9 tips on how to deal with them. 

While most web browsing happens on mobile, desktop users are still way more likely to buy. They also spend more than mobile buyers. 

Gen Z members plan on doing most of their holiday shopping in physical shops this year (just like baby boomers), but many will do research online first. Also, “Forty-two percent of shoppers said that low prices are the top motivator for making purchases and 31% said free shipping was also a shopping incentive.”

Offering fewer options can lead to more sales. (The article has great suggestions on different ways to use this info.)

MISCELLANEOUS 

Vimeo app Magisto is facing a class-action lawsuit over holding biometric data without the owners’ permission.

Haven’t heard much about the EU privacy law lately? It turns out that businesses that are GDPR-compliant are more successful than those that are not. The shocker is that only 28% of the companies surveyed were actually completely compliant, so this may be correlation and not causation. Also, the results were self-reported, so maybe not that accurate. 

Here’s a decent list of free website builders, but I strongly suggest doing your own research on any that sound good, as the writeup isn’t very detailed. (The Etsy forum is a very good place for some of this research, as you can ask very specific questions of people who probably have similar needs to yours.)

Chrome is going to block embedded content that isn’t from an https site, beginning in December. [if your website isn’t yet https, get on that right away - it is going to become more & more crucial for being seen.]