#(and saw a video from the artist commissioned to make some artwork and I DO feel bad for her and the cover artist) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dervampireprince · 2 months

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"i wonder if when people see the artwork thumbnails they think the drawings are of fandom characters? and so they don't click because they don't recognise what fandom it is?"

For me personally, I'd never heard of several of the existing fandoms you've done audios for, and have been introduced to them that way, but I'd listened to quite a few of your OCs prior to that. (Maybe that's just me, though? I'll often listen to whatever piques my curiosity at a given moment.) I can say I found your channel while searching for Sebastian ASMRs, and liked yours so much, I looked at what else you had and quickly saw Erik (I've been into PotO for almost 30 years now, so that was something I jumped at), which I played next. However, Dmitri was an immediate third, then Ambrose, then Arden. So I guess the subjects appeal to me more, but maybe I'm weird? Regardless, I hope more people will listen to the OCs with art, as they will not be disappointed in the least! 💜 /pos

I don't think it's weird.

When I first started listening to audio roleplays I can think of a couple instances where I did listen to characters I didn't know. I really liked, and still like, KinkRadio's audios and back when he was first voicing Guzma from Pokemon I didn't know who Guzma was but got into those audios, and I listen to his Witcher audios despite never having watched the show (yes I know I've made audios of Jaskier, I've only ever watched one episode, I like the characters but I overall didn't like the show and didn't want to watch the rest, if my Jaskier is in character it's because of episode 1, fanfics, and K's audios).

However nowadays I wouldn't listen to an audio unless I knew the character. I don't do it so I wouldn't have expected other people too.

I do listen to other people's OCs though so I don't know. Maybe they don't think it's a fandom character but instead just don't like my artstyle or... Well...

Most art in ASMR audios on Youtube is stolen art. Most don't credit the artist who's work they've taken, some credit Pintrest reposts, and even if they do credit the artist properly it doesn't matter because you can't use someone's art (especially their own original characters and use that as a design for your own OC) in your own audios without their permission. Even more so when the video is monetised and you're making money off someone else's art without paying them. And this includes Picrews. Picrews are still someone's art. Some Picrews are public domain / creative commons 0 meaning you can use them, but those that aren't? Don't. Not without the artists permission.

My point of bringing that up is I notice the videos with art that get the most views... tent do be stolen lewd or cropped explicit art. And I have no interest in drawing my own lewd art for my thumbnails because that's not really allowed? But they get the views.

Of course that's not to say all VAs on Youtube do this. And it's not to say that no VAs with artwork do well. People who's OCs I like and either make their own art or commission artists to make their art are: KinkRadio, Dark and Twisted Whisper, YuuriVoice. Though with Yuuri and Dark they both have only artwork in their thumbnails not lots of text so idk if that doesnt better? I'm not too bothered. Maybe one day I'll try and cosplay my own OCs just to take photos for their thumbnails and see if they do better than the artwork ones as an experiment.

Wow sorry I didn't meant to ramble here. I have no current plans to change up my thumbnails but it would be interesting to do eg a Satin audio with a photo and see how that does compared to the artwork ones just as a little test.

#the vampire answers #hotmonkeelove

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mkanuhea · 1 year

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Saw your anti AI post and I agree so much.

I used to work with a friend who is a influencer and youtuber. They asked me to do the thumbnails since they love my art and I've been struggeling with money for a while.

It was a nice extra income.

Until they found AI and that they can just push a button and get free art immidiately.

So I got turned down silently. No official "hey I took something else" nothing. They just started using AI and stopped updating my art schedule. I had an argument with them about it and stated the issue with AI. They kinda don't care. They only see their own profit.

Mind you, this person is super leftist. I expected more from them especially because they complain a lot how other youtubers steal and copy their videos.

Also note: I did a very fair price, I even underpaid myself.

And now I have to see how I'll make through the next few months.

So yeah, AI doesn't only steal art, it steals jobs especially from small artists. I want this shit to fucking end already

First of all, I'm so so SO sorry this happened to you. I really hope that you still continue to stay creative, share your artwork and wishing you loads of business to keep up your art career. Situations like this are awfully discouraging, but I implore you to keep at it. We need real, human artists more than ever. Never stop creating friend.

Personally, I feel like the use of AI "artwork" typically made by so-called leftists or liberals outs that their solidarity is just performative. Whether they realize it or not, I feel as if you're competent enough to realize capitalism is not good for anyone (unless you're swimming in a billion dollars) that you'd come to the understanding AI "art" hurts the working class - because, lets be honest, if you're selling you're artwork/making art to sell, you're working. You're a worker. And it's just even more so baffling when other ARTISTS are making AI art "for shits and giggles" all while acknowledging that the production of AI artwork hurts artists. The cognitive dissonance is real - or or or - their activism is just performative. lol.

I won't support artists who use AI "art" and post it even if it's "just for fun". I don't care if you "just wanted to see" yourself in Greg Rutkowski's style or (the other artist's style, I cannot for the life of me remember their name) and share it on social media. One of my acquaintances on Facebook makes and sells jewelry and is supposedly an avid leftist, and another acquaintance of mine also does commissions and sells their artwork also via Facebook; yet recently posted AI self portraits and my respect for both of them quickly got flushed down the shitter.

Really, and I say this with every micrometer of my fuckn soul, feeding the generator and sharing your AI "artwork" is completely and disgustingly insulting for any competent artist (and I say competent, because this phase has proven some are in fact, not). For those who've posted and shared their AI "art", fuck you for even having the thought and ESPECIALLY a hot and steamy massive fuck you if you've ever acknowledged in the past the destruction of AI-generated artwork. Get shit on.

How to stop this? Stop feeding the fucking robot. Call out/educate those who post AI art. Stop supporting other artists that use and share AI art. While there are many things in a capitalist society we're unfortunately compliant to, this is one of those things we have the power to nip in the butt before it gets worse.

#text #asks #anonymous #anti-ai art

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ecoamerica · 23 days

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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kouhsuu · 9 months

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hii hello who are you whats your lore!!

MY LORE okay that's a new one

*THIS IS GONNA BE LONG AND RAMBLY*

Who I am? 17 year old genderfluid digital and traditional artist 👍

For my lore as an artist: My dad is a painter so from a very young age i was surrounded by art materials literally taking up half our small living room because of the easles, giant canvas rolls, wood, cabinets full of paints and brushes, etc.

Essentially I was very encouraged by him to draw lol, and it also came out of me just finding art so much fun in general. I knew that if I got good enough at it I could draw almost anything I wanted if i pushed myself to learn.

I get verrry engrossed learning anything creative and visual, whether it be making my own website, sewing, sculpting, video editing, 3d modelling, painting, woodworking, etc it's all SO! MUCH! FUN!! I also have to specify visual creativity because oh boy can i not stand trying to make music as much as i want to.

In school I was very obviously the art kid and one of the weird kids, but luckily never got bullied because i was charismatic enough and generally there weren't major major assholes at my schools somehow. I usually was involved with the special programs in my schools because of my enthusiasm to learn and participate, so I got an opportunity to enroll into an early scholarship program for LaGuardia art school in middle school which... i ended up turning down because i thought it would be too much work being in a college like that... which honestly only kind of regret because honestly now i'd rather get into drafting and architecture.

Speaking of drafting and architecture! The reason my dad became a painter is because my grandma couldn't afford to send him to school to become an architect, so he pushed me to go into the field as well now that I have the opportunity. I didn't really feel like it but it seemed kind of interesting designing buildings because if i knew how buildings were made, i could more accurately put detail into my art xD Most decisions I make are to improve my own artwork because it's my life and soul, and luckily i ended up getting interested into working with more drafting.

My first social media i posted art on was google plus, then came deviantart, then came youtube, then twitter, and now tumblr (and cohost & itaku). I still use twitter but my main account (@/hamunako) is essentially inactive, I don't care enough to keep posting there nor do i have the motivation NOR do i want to have the anxiety to feel like I have to keep posting because uh oh people wont interact with me otherwise!!!!! Now I just use a private account with less than 25 followers and its the best. I made this Tumblr account though just in case twitter finally deleted itself off of the face of the planet, and also because i've always wanted to figure out how tumblr works & instagram confused me even more than tumblr...

As for why i've been drawing SOOOO much lonely wolf treat lately??? Short answer: ADHD (possible autism too?), Long answer: A long long time ago I watched manlybadasshero's playthrough of lonely wolf treat and loved it, then i forgot about it until i went on itch a while ago and saw that nami had posted mochi in frosting so I was like WOAH THERE'S STILL NEW CHAPTERS?! I got even more into it when it turned out one of my new friends ALSO had played lonely wolf treat so we drew the characters and it allllll spiraled from there.

Can't think of anything else interesting to share regarding my lore but yeah!!! Also I take commissions, just message me and i'll show what I can do and my prices! Don't have a formal post yet but i'll get to it at some point, i'm not very formal in the first place xP

#long post #kouhsuu lore #ask #asks

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vampirepunks · 1 year

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Hey, when I do AI art, it is on free use pictures of real people not art work that is drawn. Why should that version of it get taken away. I 100% agree with you on drawn artwork, just not photos.

You know what, you have a good point here, but I do have some thoughts and concerns. First, I want to say I appreciate you listening to us artists about our issues with this new technology. We don't want enemies, but we're frustrated and tired of being brushed aside or even outright insulted over this. Artists, writers, and other creatives work very hard on our craft and for many of us, it's more than a hobby, it's a livelihood and/or key piece of our identity. When these programs steal our hard work, that's money out of our pockets and a heavy strife to the pride we've earned. The amount of hatred and disrespect we've gotten in response to us taking a stand is staggering. There's a reason we're so angry about it. We desperately need people on our side, so thank you for hearing us.

I'm willing to acknowledge that AI can be a nuanced issue. In fact, I'm mutuals with a video game modder (spaced0lphin, if you see this, ily) who is making a mod with voice-replication AI and has gotten caught up in the ire of the voice actors who are being imitated. They have some very good points on this issue; I highly recommend looking for that on their modding blog here and watching this video they made about the controversy. I agree with them on that side of things.

All that said, I'm gonna dig into the deeper sides of the matter so buckle yourself in for that. No worries, I ain't gonna rake you over the coals. While this is an issue I'm very passionate about, I appreciate the opportunity for a productive discussion. Disclaimer as usual that this is my opinion, I obviously don't represent the whole community nor do I want to.

I do believe there is a place for AI, it's not all bad. What's *not* okay is the morally reprehensible way most of these programs operate. The core issue comes down to ethics. To state it plainly, the chief gripe is that it's unethical to steal from creatives. Anyone with a conscience would agree it's wrong to take the cash out of a minimum-wage worker's tip jar, so why are people okay with tech giants doing something functionally similar to us creatives? We work so very hard, it's not a lot to ask that people respect our copyrights, take a spare second to appreciate our contributions to the arts, and don't support companies that have harmed us. It's even worse when people use AI art deceptively, such as lying about using AI to create something. Disclosure matters.

So, when is AI generation okay? I believe it comes down to consent and fair use. Honestly, I'd be A-Okay with AI art (maybe I wouldn't like it, but I'd hardly be so mad) if the models were made from the work of consenting creators, preferably who get a slice of the profit. Also, even if the AI in question is ethical, I'd request that people consider commissioning a human artist instead (if they can reasonably afford it) and take the time to ask themselves if they'd pay for it if AI wasn't an option. At the end of the day, I don't have too many issues with the technology itself, I just hate the scummy means the majority of these programs utilize to achieve it, as well as the negative impact it's had on the creative community. Now, when you say the program you use to generate photos is trained on "free use" pictures, I'd advise verifying their training data. "Public" doesn't always mean "free to use," e.g., I wouldn't want a selfie from my social media used to train AI photo models, because I haven't consented to people using my face. It's the same way I'd be upset if I saw a tumblr bot using a picture of me. Fair use images would mean the photographers' copyrights aren't being violated and they haven't asked/reasonably expected their work not be used in this way. Now if those conditions are met by your choice of AI, then you know what? I'm fine with that. If nothing was stolen, then by all means, you do you, my friend.

Now, let's talk real quick about the implications of private vs. corporate use. AI should not be used to replace human jobs. If we had a proper socioeconomic safety net, then maybe we could discuss it in more flexible terms, but under capitalism we absolutely don't have that luxury. Just take a look at the writers' strike and the concerns folks have with the likelihood of AI undermining the union's perfectly reasonable request for fair wages and decent treatment. Nobody predicted that "skilled" labor would be replaced before entry-level manual work, so as a society we're woefully unprepared to combat such a problem.

There is a way everyone can win here, but what we're asking you to do is hold corporations accountable and avoid participating in literal theft. Very few moral problems are without nuance and hearing others out is an opportunity to learn and grow, so thanks for bringing this up. Have a good day, dear anon. Be kind to others and also be kind to yourself ❤

#anon #logan answers #ai art #ai generation #vampirepunks discusses ai art #on politics

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enigmaticexplorer · 1 month

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Hey Alli! For the writers ask game here, how about 🔪 🕯 and/or 🪐 depending on what you prefer!

Writers Truth and Dare Ask Game

Hi Maia! Thank you for sending this in :)

🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

I LOVE editing. (Sometimes. Most of the time.) 10/10.

Editing and revising (I consider them one-in-the-same) is the time for me to take my writing from "shitty first draft" to "piece I'm proud of."

However, I am very critical of my writing. I go through at least three stages of editing for a single chapter (and it's usually more in the 5-stage range). Sometimes, when I'm editing, I want to give up on whatever I'm writing. I feel like an imposter; I feel like my writing is terrible; I feel like it's not even worth it because reading my first draft makes me cringe.

But then I remember this quote by William Matthews: "Revision isn't cleaning up after the party, revision is the party."

I love editing/revising because I get to see my writing improve within a chapter. I get to take my initial idea and expand on it. Develop it. Insert some magic and bring the story to life. I can't do that when I'm just word vomiting in my first draft.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I'm afraid I'm going to be quite dull: I have no idea. I can't even remember the last thing I researched for a writing project 😅 Honestly, I usually "research" Star Wars galactic maps because I never remember where any of the planets are located.

I have done some "research" about dragons across different cultures to inspire some of the myths in my WIP I Yearn, and so I Fear. But I doubt that constitutes as weird haha.

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

It dropped 18 inches of snow last week and now I have a handful of videos of my puppy bouncing through the snow. They make me so happy.

My sister will be visiting me from college in two weeks and I'm excited to hang out with her! It's been a few months since I last saw her.

I commissioned an artwork for my fanfic and the artist has been the loveliest. I've been adoring the progress updates she's sent me and the artwork is nearing completion, so I'm stoked to share it with people on here!

#thank you so much for sending this in :)#I had a lot of fun answering this (sorry the research question sucked #ask game #writer's ask game

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research604jo · 7 months

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Deeper research on Mila Useche

Link to her website Link to her instagram

Website about page: "Mila Useche is a Colombian artist and film director based in Berlin. After graduating from university in 2017 with a B.A. in Illustration, she started working in video games and comics as a designer and illustrator. In 2020 she decided to start freelancing as a character designer for animation and publishing. Among several clients are Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Scholastic, Harper Collins, and Warner Bros. Animation. Most recently, Mila’s work has shifted from client-based digital services to more personal and physical artworks."

Looking through her instagram, I saw lots of personal insights in a lot of her posts where I was able to understand her thinking and thought process as she went from character design + animation to physical paintings.

HER EARLY WORK:

Early in her instagram, you can see her diverse skill in animation. She is a character designer and scene builder working in a textured digital style that gives her artwork a very cosy, heartwarming, storybook style. She was getting commissioned by animation studios, even to make promotional art for Disney's Encanto (see above). Che did instagram "challenges" such as the "hue challenge" (see above) which is a big commitment and is mainly to drive instagram engagement but also seems to encourage many illustration styles from her. During this time she mostly did digital painting on her iPad, only ever doing studies and plans in her sketchbooks.

HER TRANSITIONAL WORK:

She had expressed that it had been years since doing something fun and expressive in her sketchbook and was very inspired on her trip to Tokyo earlier this year. She began branching out of her sketchbook, using watercolours on paper, using acrylics on canvas, eventually to pastel crayons on large paper and even having a go at some miniature sculpting of her characters. Drawing oil pastels on paper was the thing that inspired her the most, she says it brings back the feeling of drawing in her sketchbook as a child, and that the pastels allowed her more freedom to make mistakes because it's cheaper than watercolour and acrylics.

Because of her new freedom in creating her personal art instead of animation work, she also began being inspired by memories and personal experiences. Although she never fully describes the meaning or origin, you can see the concept in her art and the expression in it. Quotes from her instagram descriptions in under a few images: "Going back to traditional feels so good!" "I know it's not my usual art, but bare with me, cus I'm having so much fun"

HER CURRENT WORK: (What I'm inspired by)

She began buying larger and larger canvases, showing each peice with pride - even when she doesn't love what she has created she tells us "I'm not very happy about it (the painting), makes me a bit uncomfortable, but that always motivates me to start the next (painting)". This is such a great perspective as an artist.

"I think I will name this art movement Colobia Pop Kawaii"

Her current goals in life are to be able to afford a big, bright, well equipped studio with a view and a garden.

She expresses that her original dream when she left university was to have her art exhibited in galleries and museums and she felt as though she'd lost that dream when she moved to digital only art work. I think it's interesting that despite doing amazing digital art and working for amazing animation studios and projects, she didn't feel fulfilled. That is the dream of many artists and she was able to be honest with herself and her audience and take the leap into an entirely different art style and was able to bloom and express herself in a more truthful way.

I think a lot of creatives and artists can relate to this path and are somewhere along it. Although I'm obviously early in my artistic journey, I'd say I'm in that transitional stage at the moment where I'm looking for my true style and looking for a way to create that is truthful to myself.

#thecreative

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tessaqueendingo · 10 months

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Possible controversial opinion but when I buy art of my IP base line what I am buying is the right to use it for my daily online activities.

If I commission something I get to use it for: Social media, vod thumbnails, discord icons, twitch wallpaper ect. What it doesn’t cover is resale, reproduction or merchandise. Can’t put it on a sticker set or mug on red bubble ect.

The two images here I paid full commercial fees for and as such I can make stickers, mugs, keychains and whatever else I feel like. But I absolutely paid for that commercial use.

The other day I had a pretty unpleasant experience with someone demanding a commercial fee for any kind of use outside of posting it on whole on social media. Like fair play to how you want to run your business. Not my bag so I said wasn’t comfortable with that and then they said and I quote (copy past from the DMs).

“Since you gain something from the video you posts with that artwork on it. If other artists don't do that then they don't value their arts, they're just after the money and not care about their rights.”

Like what the actual fuck? I definitely saw red on this. I commission a lot of artists and have done so for years. To declare they don’t care about there rights as artists because they’re not running there business like you is just vile.

When you do freelance work you are selling something, on some level it’s mine, I paid for it. It also contains my IP.

If your not comfortable with the idea your art might be fiscally beneficial to the client even when not used for merchandise don’t bother working with vtubers even just posted on socials it’s content that advertises me and my content.

Artist: ❀ Nyiminin ❀ Illustrations ❀

#commission #digital art #vtuber #vtuberen #art #merchandise #my rants

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cri8ive-scrapbook · 1 year

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Of animation and inspiration

A little (pffff - sorry, folks, my text blog entries are *lengthy*) update on what's going on on the drawing board, and a great book recommendation!

Alright, so... lately I've been dabbing on an old passion that I had forfeit for many years; playing around with video editing software to create animated "lyrics videos" of songs I like. I am very much a Flash baby - I learned to use Flash in the early 2000s and was instantly won over by the great ease with which I could create little animated trailers with my still artworks, or nifty intros for my websites. But being also AuDHD, when Flash was discontinued, I felt too intimidated to try other video editing softwares where I'd have to re-teach myself everything, and gave up on animations altogether. It wasn't until about last year that I was drawn back to it, at first just for some short commercial videos I was commissioned by a client, and discovered an easy enough program like Filmora that allowed me to get decent effects in a simple interface.

The more I used it for work, the more I felt pulled to again create animation from my own art. I made some shy attempts, and the results were encouraging, but I also became aware of Filmora's limits so I'm now using a bundle of it plus Sony Vegas Pro for carrying out something that is as close as possible to what my mind sees. Being an amateur, self-taught and with great lacks in my artistic abilities, fulll frame-by-frame animatics are beyond my scope (possibly forever); but I can get a satisfying result through the interpolation of still pictures, some sfx, and music score to suggest moods and storylines.

When I work on my little "animated" projects, I always feel compelled to re-read Wendy Pini's Law & Chaos book. Because her approach to the Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer movie she wanted to make in her days as an animation student rings so true to my own experience. What I do in digital nowadays is essentially what she did with painstakingly and lovingly crafted traditional art back in the days; tell a story through the use of key scenes visualized in detail, with the artistic rendition (the inks, the perspective, the colors) in charge of the emotional response and a little additional help from technology and background music.

But there's more to this. Because Law & Chaos reasonates with me to a much deeper, personal level. The earlier pages where Wendy explains how her artwork had always been projected toward animation, how she had always wanted her characters to move, is something I could say from the depth of my own soul. Already as a kid I was more interested in the "movement" than in the finishing (which, I suspect, is why I was such a reluctant learner of techniques or more "technical" drawing); I used speech balloons to show the interaction between characters. I remember my mother would occasionally try to discourage me pointing out that comics distracted from the drawing; my poor mother, I think, associated art more with "traditonal" paintings. Occasionally, she would complain that "it'd be better to put up your drawings if it was just the art, without the speech balloons" and sometimes, to amuse her, I tried, but it seeemd to me that the pictures were then "muted", that the stories and dynamics I saw behind them couldn't be expressed because the characters couldn't "speak".

I was always conscious of my limits. I had seen documentaries on the cartoons I loved, and I knew that a lot of work went behind those smooth animations, and a snide part of me already as a kid knew I'd never be able to pull off anything like that. I was (and am) heavy handed; I delete and redraw so often that in the time of traditional art I'd always tear down the paper and that'd work me into a crying fit because then I had to redraw *everything else* and, on second try, the result was always, for some reason, below par with the first permanently ruined attempt. I wasn't patient. I wasn't nimble-handed. I longed to tell stories with my art - but animation seemed a world out of my reach. So I made "mini-comics" instead. I was content. "The small truth" (to quote the character Strongbow in Wendy Pini's independent comic series, the long-running ElfQuest), was enough for me.

Then... around the time I was 8 or 9, something unexpected happened. Computers arrived in Italy too, and quickly became popular, and next thing I knew not only we had them in school but a lot of my class mates had their own computers at home, and *then* suddenly I was reading up on computers, and *then* I suddenly had my own, and a new world of opportunities suddenly opened before me. When everyone and their cousin was hyped about playing videogames (Internet woudln't be a thing until some years later, and ADSL/WiFi until MUCH later down the line), I could only think of two things; a computer would allow me to have my fiction stories actually look like books and it would allow me to animate my drawings. Have them move, finally tell the stories they were imbued with - and without the need for speech ballons or any filters.

Such "wild" dreams from a learning-challenged kid of under-10, back in the late 1990s, can only sound hilarious in hindsight. Scrambling with Paint, creating "pictures" that I find repulsive today, I felt like I was doing something grandiose and one step closer to my dream of seeing my pictures come alive and tell their stories. I was soon to find out it wasn't so easy and computers didn't "magically" animate things - but, with all my limits, I no longer felt like I was a spectator watching on a world that would forever be out of my reach. I was a beginner, a rookie, on the amateur track still. But I had broken past he wall that separated me from that world of fancies. It would take time, it would take patience, but I was en route and now the journey could only go on. And on.

There were pitfallls, as there always are, and moments when I'd just grow so frustrated or have so many hassles to draw me away from that world completely. This, too, I found in Wendy's recollections in the Law & Chaos book. But there were also moments when my heart soared. When Internet became a thing, and I learned about animated GIFs, and the first thing I did was download a gif animator software and sketch a silly doodle of one of my wolves and animate it. It was crude, nonsensical, poorly executed, and if I think back about it today, I wince; but back then I felt like I was yet one step closer to the dream, and I cheered, and I was ridiculously proud of myself and of what I had done. Then came Flash. Another step closer to the dream. Short snippets, little more than "trailers" of RPs or spooky scenettes for Halloween - but it was *happening*. The first breath of life was infused to my still drawings. I'm writing this now before I delve back into the inks of my latest, current project; a full lyrics video, the second I've made since 2022, after two smaller projects (a series of flashes and a partecipation in a MAP video with other friends). If the first was just a test run to see "if I could do it", now I'm more demanding, with myself and with my tools. I'm using two video editors, not one, because I want the "theater of the mind" (thanks, Wendy!) to look exactly as I know it should. I'm trying to put as much work in every still image as I'll be able to. I have made a screenplay, with the exact sequence of each scene set to match certain moments of the music score. I have made a test-run with the rough sketches and am jotting down notes on what aspects will need to be fine-tuned (a more well-timed fade in/fade out effect, a better placed transition, etc). And I'm weeping with joy and going over this gem of a book again just as I'd told a long time friend "Remember all our talks on animation? Well I'm doing it now, I'm there, I succeeded!"

Because I've taken the final step, and now the dream - my dream - is becoming true.

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agape-bakery · 3 years

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Hi ! I love your blog and your idea to make a bakery is just awesome ^-^ anyway how are you ? I hope you have a good day :) I'm here to request a female mc who love drawing. And i wonder if you can make brothers react to mc who draw them when they're sleeping, eating or i don't know like you want. If you can of vourse it's not an obligation :3

I wish you a good day \(^-^)/

💫

Thank you so much! I really enjoy the location-themed blogs here like Cafes and such so I'm happy you think the same! I'm doing good! And also, YESS!! I love Artist MCs/Y/Ns because I'm an artist myself! I hope you enjoy these!

The Brothers with an F! MC who draws

Lucifer

He already knew you love to draw and didn't mind that, at least that's one good hobby someone has on his list compared to gambling and parties

If there is something Lucifer appreciates about humans, it's their art and cultures, he might take you to art museums for inspiration and have a date in a cafe and talk to you about the paintings you both saw

If art museums are not your thing, he would be a little disappointed but then again, some artists like more modern artworks and some that are shown online so he understands

And frankly, having you draw him makes him immensely proud of himself for having a talented girlfriend like you, he doesn't ask that you draw him but he secretly wants to

Lucifer occasionally buys art supplies for you but only if you've been good

"So you joined Mammon on going to the casino to draw the people there?"

"Pretty much...."

"Hmm.. I guess you aren't going to get some Copics from me anytime soon."

"WHAT-"

Lucifer is also observant and knows when and who you're drawing immediately

"I can see you staring at me."

His eyes looked up at yours as you looked away, pencil in hand.

"No, I'm not."

He's seen you glance at him several times before looking down at your sketchbook.

It was breakfast and you were sat between a sleeping Belphie and a distracted Beel so you took the time to draw the eldest when no one's looking.

Lucifer hummed and told Beel not to eat so messily as you continued to draw him.

Lucifer has seen many sketches of him and the brothers and when you give him some as a gift, he keeps it well-protected somewhere that Mammon can't steal in his bedroom.

Mammon

He absolutely cherishes every drawing you have, the boy keeps a doodle of him and you as a good luck charm too <3

He might ask that you do commissions and he gets some of it (for giving the idea and managing the commissions-) but one glare and he'll shut up with a nervous chuckle and an "H-hey! It's just a joke!"

When Mammon sees you staring at some art supplies, he checks it again when he's alone and dies inside because of the price and buys it immediately, he doesn't care if he loses a lot of money only a little bit, all he wants is to see your face when he gives it to you

"You better be grateful that The Great Mammon even thought of giving this to you!... Do-don't look at me like that! It was on sale!!"

While Mammon was napping on his couch, you hastily opened your sketchbook and started sketching him and the boy never realized

By the time he woke up, you were already finished doing 5 sketches of him and taking pictures of him for reference

"Oi! What are you doing? Gimme that!"

His heart completely melts because??? you drew him so good??? his girlfriend drew him???? for free??? and out of love????

He also draws you but it's just a stickman with a messy face but you still love it all the same

Leviathan

Finally...another Artist...AND HIS GIRLFRIEND NO LESS!!

He's so happy and giddy to show off his art supplies but he's hesitant when it comes to showing off his art because he thinks it's horrible compared to yours

You encourage him and usually learn together with him whenever he feels awful about his art

He's the Avatar of Envy so there are many times where he's compared himself to other artists so you had to be there to keep him grounded

Art Date, anyone??

It doesn't matter whether you buy art supplies or just take a break from school, it was always nice being around Leviathan

You took the chance to draw him while he was across from you and excitedly showed it to him

He had drawn himself (albeit, in a persona) in many games and animes but your drawing was more special than anything he's ever done

He looked away, avoiding eye contact as he gave you his own drawing which was you in your favorite video game

From now on, whenever the both of you wanted to give small gifts, you draw each other!! <3

Satan

A demon who enjoys impressionism art, there's something about the dreamy landscapes and colors that really makes him calm aside from reading

I think he would paint for a change of pace but gets frustrated because of how difficult it is so he goes back to reading

So watching you draw makes him impressed, drawing takes so much time to master

He doesn't mind whatever art style you have, aside from the impressionism style, he would have yours as his favorite

He understands the pain of art block so he often invites you in his room, one where the others wouldn't bother you, just don't touch anything or else you'll turn into some random animal for a few hours

He also encourages that you read with him when you're uninspired! Reading helps the imagination and the mind, and he'd be happy to recommend some for you!

You trust him with your sketchbooks and he trusts you with his books! The both of you knew the other wouldn't do anything which is why he only lets you inside his room

While Satan makes a drink for you, humming an old song in his DDD, you drew him in overalls and glasses

When you were bored, you would always draw your boyfriend in random outfits and would often show it to him (which he all loves)

"Overalls and Glasses, huh? I might wear it tomorrow." Satan grins, peeking at your sketchbook as he puts down the drinks.

Don't get your hopes too high, he isn't going to wear a maid outfit........yet-

Asmodeus

Oh? You draw? Wellll, if you need a model, he's happy to be your own personal model, but it comes with a price ;)

He loves that you draw! And would ask you to draw him

There's many artworks he likes but yours he enjoys the most, even if you aren't his girlfriend

Might ask you if you can design outfits and draw him in certain outfits so he can try them out!

Of course, drawing is not an easy feat so he'll pay you handsomely~

If you do commissions, he gets one just so he can support you

He knows that art doesn't pay much yet it is so overlooked by others

"Everywhere is art, darling, I'm surprised some humans don't know that! Of course, I'm the most beautiful art there is but I'll have you as second~"

He might blush if you draw him without him asking, he think he's desirable enough to draw without a price! After hearing that you just love him might make him blush harder! Aww, you!

He'll give you several pecks as he laughs after seeing your drawing of him! One where he was posing in one of the photos you had of him during your dates

Anatomy is hard so if you want a nude model, he'll volunteer on the spot, sure he has thoughts but if you're fully intent on getting better, he's happy to help!

Beelzebub

He's not the type to focus on art so he doesn't understand it much, that doesn't mean he isn't impressed though!

He has heard of Food Art and Food Illustrations though...Based by the Arty Event, he seems to be good at drawing food! He wanted to try it more but Lucifer forbid him in case he would eat the paper and get chemical poisoning or something-

However, if you could also draw food, he would be so delighted!!! He won't eat it, he promises!

It's fine if you don't, though, he expects that you might not understand working out and sports like he doesn't understand art

Might be clueless if ever you feel bad about your drawings, he thinks it looks really good! But upon hearing how frustrated you are, he would give you hugs to comfort you!

While Beel is a oblivious sweetheart, he fully supports your hobbies and would invite you to diners and restaurants so you can draw while he eats! He might even join you while he's eating

As he eats a huge cheeseburger, you drew him, smiling at how happy he looked

When you gave it to him, he told you how spot on you drew him when he eats and keeps it around him, he avoids it getting dirty at any cost

Belphie suggested that gets a photo frame so he bought one! Now your drawing of him lays on his bedrest safely~

Belphegor

He used to love art as much as Satan and Lucifer does but he doesn't anymore, not until you showed him your drawings

You rekindled a small flame in him that he never thought would come back

He doesn't draw because it's way too much work but he enjoys hearing you draw, the sound the pencil makes when it moves around the paper, and the smell of lead and paper makes him sleepy

He secretly likes those papers that have a nice smell in them so you buy some whenever you go out to get some art supplies

"That's way too many sketchbooks, MC."

"Nothing is way too much-"

Because he always sleeps around you, he doesn't entirely realize that you have a bunch of drawings of him in your sketchbook

It makes him warm when he sees your drawings of him

He wishes he could do more to support you even if you tell him he doesn't have to so like Beel, he keeps your drawings near his bed and looks at it before he sleeps

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itsforexposure · 4 years

Text

“It’s for church! Next!”

Transcript of two very long Facebook messenger posts follows:

Client: Hi. I saw that u posted on marketplace

Client: I thought y not get a cute portrait

Artist: Oh yes! I’m open for commissions!

Artist: What do you have in mind?

Client: I would like a traditional painting. A big one. Something like 48x60 inches?

Artist: Wow that’s big

Artist: I’m not sure if I even have canvas that big. It would also take me a long time to do. Maybe 3 weeks?

Artist: A portrait of what though? Of yourself?

Client: No. I would like one of my dog in a mariachi outfit.

Artist: Ok. For that size I can do it for $300. I would need to go buy a canvas that size and I’m giving you a discount for my time.

Client. Doesn’t seem like much of a discount to me.

Client. You are not a professional, u don’t need to charge hourly...

Artist: Well I’m trying to make a career out of this and I need to charge based on my experience, cost of supplies, and my time. I’m honestly charging you less than minimum wage based on what material costs.

[Screenshot showing that a canvas of the appropriate size costs $109.99 at Michael’s]

Artist: This is the price of a canvas that size and that doesn’t include the price of the paint.

Client: Not to be mean but ur wasting your time by wanting to be an artist. No wonder u were sleeping in ur car. That’s what u get for choosing a worthless career.

Client: If you joined our church we would pray for you. We would illuminate ur future w our prayers.

Client: Tell you what

Client: Do a painting for our church, and we will pray for you.

Client: I know u did a painting about a year ago for our sister [redacted]. Why can’t you do one for us and get saved while u can

Artist: Are you asking me to do a painting for free?

Client: Not free

Client: u know each member pays 20% of their paycheck to church each month. This will be kind of your initiation to our great community

Client: I think u really need it

Client: u are being punished because u keep rejecting Jesus into your life

Client: u need salvation and a new meaning to your life.

Client: u are and will always be a starving artist. Look at u now. Do you want this forever?

Artist: If art wasn’t valuable as you say. How come you sold [redacted]’s painting that you only paid like $30 for like $12000? You bullied her into painting it for church. If art was that worthless why did you pocket that much money?

Artist: I’m not joining your cult

Client: I don’t need to give explanations to a no church member. You have no idea what u are talking about

Artist: Right. You have never had to work in your life. You inherited multiple millions of dollars from your husband, and you are trying to get free artwork from someone who actually wants to work hard for a better future? $300 wouldn’t make a dent in your bank acc. Please stop wasting my time. I’m not joining your cult.

Client: I was blessed to have found a rich husband and blessed to have lived the life I have. You are being punished and will be punished for the rest of your life for rejecting Jesus. I think people like you are better off just disappearing off earth. Such a waste of space. You would have better luck becoming a prostitute instead of selling your shitty art work. I will be praying for you to fail. I have powerful connections, I will send this conversation to all of them. I can’t wait to see you coming back for my help.

Artist: So very Christian of you.

Client: Get out of my messages satan. I can feel your dark energy. ur paintings are also diabolic.

[second screenshot]

Client: I asked [redacted] to ask u for a refund. She told me you told her no? I think you need to come up with the money somehow. Everybody that I’ve shown the screenshots and your art agrees that it’s not worth that much. u have this very dark aura around you and you refuse to get helped. Give up on art. You will never be successful.

Client: I can still help you if you make the portrait

Client: Why don’t you do one of my cat too and I’ll talk to some of my friends and maybe you’ll get any commissions from them too

Client: But you can’t charge that much. What are you even going to do with $300? Make it donation based or a flat fee of $100 for the size I asked.

Client: Being greedy is not going to take you anywhere

Client: You already know what u have to do

Artist: You are nuts. I’m posting this on reddit.

Client: What’s reddit?

Client: You don’t have my consent to do share this conversation. U HEAR ME??

Client: Oh I ready looked that site up. u belong there. Full of sinful and weird people like you. I feel sorry... What are they going to do for u? Look at ur posts on instagram you barely even have likes. I still don’t want you posting this conversation. It will do more damage to ur already failed art business

[three missed video calls in a row, presumably after the artist posted this to r/choosingbeggars]

Client: Answer my calls I know ur online

#for exposure #it's for exposure #fuck you pay me #traditional art #not today satan #the love of money is the root of all evil

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theliterarywolf · 3 years

Note

idk if this counts, but to be fair, viv did animate a music video to a fnaf fan song. I think she was commissioned for it, iirc?

Okay... But that really doesn't account for anything in my eyes.

I think there's this weird mentality that the internet has when it comes to artists and animators if they end up doing work for someone they either end up distancing themselves from or who turns out to be a piece of shit.

When, more often than not, it's literally just a paycheck.

I'm thinking back to when I first started getting into Sam Fennah's stuff and every other post in the Satellite City tag mentioned 'Oh wait, didn't he do animation work for that God-awful Nostalgia Critic review of The Wall?'

Yes. Yes, he did. And his animations were the only decent parts of that trashfire. But, aside from that, it was just a paycheck to help make ends meet. He wasn't buddy-buddy with Channel Awesome afterwards.

Or, and this is really playing devil's advocate, when Butch Hartman did that commission for fucking Antoons... Who went and edited it so he could say 'Hey, look! Butch drew my OC burning a trans flag! Guess you should all take some of your hatred of me and push it onto him~' I really doubt Butch saw anything with the transaction other than 'Ooh, money I can sink into my shitty-fucking-shit-shit streaming-service'.

So, again, while Vivzie's initial reaction to the whole kerfluffle with Scott wasn't great, saying 'Oh, you did artwork/animation for this person/this media, that means you support whatever they do forever and beyond' isn't a good take.

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not-xpr-art · 3 years

Text

Art Deep Dives #2 - The History of Fanart

Hi everyone!

This post is part of my Art Deep Dives tag, where I ramble about art-y things, often with some relation to art history in some way.

just so you know, these essays aren’t formal in anyway lol! I just do them for fun & to hopefully be interesting in some way to someone!

This week I’ll be talking about the history and importance of fanart! It’s not the entire history of fanart, just some key moments and points in it that I feel are important!

(this essay is about 2500 words long btw!)

Part 1 - What even is fanart?

I think when a lot of people hear about ‘fanart’, they often think of it as a new thing, something that came along at some point in the last century when media begun to be mass circulated around the world.

But, of course, fanart has existed long before media like Star Wars or Doctor Who were created, and even long before photography was invented, even if it wasn’t necessarily referred to as ‘fanart’ at that time since the concept of ‘intellectual property’ hadn’t been introduced at that point.

So I think at first we need to define what we even mean when we refer to ‘fanart’...

Put simply, it’s artwork made by people who are interested in something created by someone else, such as a TV show, film, book, podcast, video game etc. However, by this definition, where do original characters created by the fans as part of franchises fit into the picture? Or celebrity fanart? Or artists who use famous people’s appearances as the base for their own characters? Or what of artworks of media that have long since passed copyright laws (such as Shakespeare works, Austen works, etc)? And where do illustrations of books fit into this?

So perhaps a wider description would be, artworks made by fans of and inspired by something “belonging” to someone else (either a piece of media or... themselves). The issue of this description is that most portraiture would fit into this. So... are we about to call Thomas Gainsborough or Joshua Reynolds, two of the most famous British portrait painters of the 18th century, fanartists?

I think a lot of people in the art world would scoff at this concept, because even now the feelings surrounding fanart are pretty negative. They see it as less of a valid form of art and instead as ‘derivative’ and ‘unoriginal’. I’ve heard both non-artists and artists alike talk about fanart as ‘not real art’, and then in the next breath they’re praising portraits made by Leonardo da Vinci or Vincent Van Gogh.

I also think it’s important to note that fanart isn’t exclusively portraiture too. Often artists will draw landscapes, still life works or even abstract pieces based on their favourite media. And as previously mention, a lot of artists and writers create their own characters within a world created by another person. So, for all intents and purposes, that is a form of original art, but it is often still put down in comparison to people who make up an entirely new story and world for their characters.

Part 2 - Renaissance artists and Bible fanart!?

One of the most common defences I’ve seen for fanart is that Renaissance artists’ basically did Bible and Mythology fanart, and their artwork is considered ‘masterpieces’ so... that’s that!

Right?

Well, if we’re sticking with the definition of fanart being something based on a series of characters or concepts owned by someone else, then Religious or Mythological based art would definitely fit into this.

(Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, currently being held in the National Gallery in London).

But I think it’s important to note that the art world was a very different place in Renaissance Europe. Concepts and characters didn’t belong to any one person or group of people, instead everything was a lot more homogenised. There’s a reason why when we think of figures like Jesus or the Virgin Mary, we have a very particular idea of what they look like (a very white-washed idea, I might add). The same thing goes for portrayals of figures from Greek or Roman mythology. There were often motifs associated with these deities that dated back to Antiquity, and Renaissance artists looked back to this for their inspiration. But there was no one specific point of reference for these ‘characters’ other than the Bible, which didn’t actually ‘belong’ to anyone, not even the church.

So, I think it’s valid to bring up Renaissance artists and how the modern concept of ‘originality’ in art was less important to artists or patrons, and much of the art they did was exclusively works based on something the artist did not come up with. In my first Art Deep Dive, I talked about how History paintings (which were often Religious or Mythology based) were valued for being the product of an ‘artistic genius’ and their connection to spirituality in comparison to portraits or landscapes that depicted the real contemporary world.

But do I think it was actually fanart?

... Probably not... Although I wouldn’t begrudge anyone believing it is, because in a way it does somewhat fit into the definition of fanart. Instead this was to look at how society’s relationship to art has changed drastically in the hundreds of years since that era, as has the purpose of art itself.

And I think it does bring up some interesting discussions of why we are so obsessed with ‘originality’ in art at the moment when it’s not something that was really important before, though!

Part 3 - What about portraiture?

So... What about portraiture huh?

Now, portraiture has existed for as long as art has, essentially, but it took until the Renaissance era and beyond for it to be associated with patrons. Portraiture was more than just ‘old-timey photography’, since it was linked distinctively to a sign of wealth. I mentioned Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds earlier, who were two very influential portrait artists of the 18th century, who both fed into a market of middle and upper class patrons wanting their portraits done in this era.

(This is a piece by Reynolds of the Actress Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse).

And in a way this makes portraiture probably the earliest example of fanart as we see it today.

Except, a part of fanart that people who do it (including myself) often bring up is how it’s connected to a sense of passion and love for something. In a way, portraits done purely as commissions for an aristocrat for profit doesn’t necessarily fit into our modern notion of fanart.

This brings us back to that darn description of fanart again. Because in our current world fanart can be defined as work of celebrities done as commissions. Except, perhaps, if you’re a known portrait painter (no one says the designer of the postage stamp did fanart of Queen Elizabeth, despite the fact that it... kind of is?).

So, why is it that a portrait of the Queen is simply a portrait, but one of Billie Eilish is ‘fanart’? Who decides these parameters? And also who decides which one is more ‘worthy’ or ‘valuable’?

Places like the National Portrait Gallery are filled with portraits of famous people from history. But it’s never referred to as the ‘National Fanart Gallery’. I think in a way this boils down to who is doing the art, who the art is of and why they’re painting it. It is funny, though, that the distinction between fanart and portraiture of famous people is so similar that it requires such detailed specifications as to which is which.

So, I think it’s clear to see that where portraiture fits in the history of fanart is a contentious one...

Part 4 - Shakespeare, Fairy Paintings and other 18th/19th Century Curiosities...

From the late 18th until the late 19th century essentially saw the birth to what we now know as ‘fanart’, in a way. The growth of middle-class audiences in the early part of the 1800′s meant that there was a new found desire for landscape, genre and portrait art. And coupled with the growth of secularism, history paintings in their traditional sense had lost appeal.

There was also the small matter of media being so much more accessible and wide spread to bigger audiences due to the industrial revolution. Books were being printed more easily and sold and a reasonable price, not to mention that a significant portion of the population could now actually read, or at the very least were given some form of education. More travel and trade (and also colonialism) also lead to an increase of new kinds of media being explored. Birth of the Gothic genre, Science Fiction, Fantasy, etc, all forms of fiction that we’re very familiar with now were only just entering the public’s consciousness at this point.

Much like now, technological advances were both a blessing and curse to the people of this era. And also like now, art was used as a way to express what was happening in the world. A great example of this is JMW Turner’s Flying ,,, which shows an old ship being transported into harbour by a steamboat, something that was very new to this era. It spoke of the new technologies overpowering the old, and the fears a lot of people had because of this.

This lead to the development of Fairy Paintings, to move to a new time of history painting that was more based on folktales and works of fiction by writers like Shakespeare, and were often used as a form of escapism. William Blake is a prominent figure in this type of painting, along with some Pre-Raphaelite painters.

This is a piece directly based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Henry Fuseli and is completely undoubtedly fanart in essentially every way. Many of his works, and the works of his contemporaries, were based on the works of writers like Shakespeare.

This piece, along with most of his other works, was also exhibited in the Tate Gallery way back in the early 19th century. Fanart like this was openly welcomed into galleries in this era, something that’s a far cry from my art teachers in school and college actively discouraging us from doing any kind of fanart for our projects.

The mass appeal of these kinds of art lasted well into the 20th century and even after the advent of photography, which created an entirely new kind of media to be consumed.

I actually think that a lot of this animosity towards fanart stems from a lot of fanart being born from drawing from photos as references, which is why I think artworks that are fanart from an pre-photography era are valued above artworks done now.

Part 5 - The Beginnings of Intellectual Property and Copyright Hell...

Earlier I mentioned how fanart could be defined as work done inspired by media belonging to someone else. However, this begs the question whether a single person or company can actually own such things as characters and story concepts.

Copyright as we know it today essentially originated in the 18th century. Now, I’m not going to go into all the history of copyright here (partly because it’s confusing af), but essentially throughout the 18th and 19th century all across the world, intellectual property laws were brought in for books & later extended to other media types. They basically prevented any other person or publisher being able to copy, distribute or adapt the piece of media. As many may know, copyright laws run out after a certain amount of time (I believe either between 70 or 100 years), by which time they enter the Public Domain and are free to be used in anyway by anyone.

Copyright laws can be a real detriment to fanartists, however, particularly when large companies like Disney cracking down on any small hint of one of their characters in the last few years. This feels particularly insidious to me given how most Disney films are based on old fairy-tales and legends. But in using these centuries old stories and giving them the ‘Disney flavour’, they have been able to essentially repackage the original story for their own profit. Disney of course aren’t the only company to do this, but given how Disney own basically everything media-wise now, they are the biggest perpetrator of this at the moment.

It’s important to note that to this day, copyright doesn’t extend to ideas or themes. As well as this, copyrighted media can be used by people who don’t own it either by asking for permission or via ‘fair use’. But as a lot of Youtubers would tell you, this is often something that is ignored by large companies in favour of holding monopoly over the entire thing.

This is of course not to say that copyright can’t be a good thing. I believe that artists and creators deserve to have the rights to their individual works. The issue is surrounding big conglomerate companies using copyright not as a way of protecting and supporting their in-house artists, but as a way of boosting profits.

My thoughts are that copyright laws should exist to prevent other people or companies from stealing or overtly copying/adapting a work made by someone else, not preventing a small freelance artist from selling a couple prints of a drawing from a film Disney made 20+ years ago based on a stories written hundreds of years ago.

(I know it’s not as simple as this, but you get what I mean lol)

In a big way, copyright laws were what created our modern notion of fanart, since prior to that no-one really had ownership of their works in the same way that copyright allows you. So, even thought I’ve been quite pessimistic about it, fanart really wouldn’t exist without it so... it’s not all bad lol?

Part 6 - Why is any of this important??

I realise that this is a strange question to ask at the end of this essay, but I really wanted to leave my true personal thoughts until the end in order to keep at least a vague sense of being objective through this lol...

To me, fanart is something that made me fall in love with art in the first place, particularly digital art. I was able to find communities of like minded people and make some really good friends, all because of fanart.

I’ve also spoken to other artists who say how fanart allows them to connect to their favourite shows or characters or celebrities, and a way of expressing their love for something! It’s also often a gateway for artists to get into art as children, and some have said how fanart has allowed them to be more creative in general!

Fanart is something so intrinsic to fandom culture, so much so that it has existed for as long as people have loved things (even long before the internet). And I know that a lot of public figures who receive fanart, either of themselves or of works they’ve created, often express genuine happiness of being the inspiration for someone else...

So, fanart is important to us because it’s escapism, it’s freedom, and it brings us together in such a genuine way!

I wrote this essay because I wanted to truly explore where fanart actually came from, and what I ended up discovering is that the artworld has never been clean-cut separated into ‘original art’ and ‘fanart’!

The history of fanart is messy, confusing, but one thing is very clear to me: it doesn’t just run parallel to the history of art as a lot of people assume, it is instead interwoven into the fabric of all art!

So for my fellow fanartists, keep on doing what you’re doing, because your passion and love is palpable in your work, and really isn’t that what fanart is all about anyway??

~~~

Phew... Can you believe I actually did try and keep this short lol?

Anyway, thank you for reaching the end! And a special thank you to the people over at Artfolapp (my username is dangerliesbeforeyou over there btw!) who gave me their thoughts on fanart!

As always, my ask box is open for anyone who’s interested in discussing this further, and I also have an Art Advice Tag if you need help on improving your art!

#art deep dives #fanart #history of fanart #art history #art discussion #essay #history of art #blog post #i'm just... really passionate about fanart ... can u tell lol?#i may do a follow up of this one day since this is far from everything i want to talk about #but i figured 2500 words was enough for now..

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artandhuddle · 5 years

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Artist Interview with Daphne Hutcheson

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Daphne Hutcheson, an artist I’ve admired for quite some time. Her work and knowledge in the arts has helped me, along with many other artists in the online community.

Daphne Hutcheson, also known as @paperwick on social media, has been creating artwork from a very young age, with works in both traditional and digital media. Her work covers a broad range of fandoms, original content, and client based works along with some very useful and resourceful tutorials.

K: I wanted to first ask about your experience attending SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design)?

D: My experience at SCAD was tepid at best. The teachers were good, but I mean very specifically the professors who were teaching in my major, which was sequential art. SCAD is really not a great institute for anyone who isn't rich enough for their parents' to cover the cost. That's my biggest issue with it, they will cripple you with debt, so if anyone is lower-income, I would highly suggest learning via some of great online courses or using a state college's art program to sort of direct you if you need direction and deadlines. I know I need them. SCAD's loans are no joke. The college itself was very good my first year, they do a lot to make sure incoming students feel heard and welcomed, and then after that they really don't try for you. As soon as you're a sophomore, they could care less about how you feel to be there. Their class attendance requirements are grueling and there's no room for accidents--you miss four class sessions and you fail the course. It's wild, and even if you're in the hospital, those absences will not be forgiven. If you're late, it counts as an absence.I don't recommend it. At all. All the learning I garnered there is online accessible these days, one just has to hunker down, find it, and put it to practice. My professors were great, but no education is worth that price tag. Depending on your major there, you will be treated differently by the school. For example, their fashion and fibers majors are doted on, whereas a major like animation is ground hard into the dirt. There were unrealisitc deadlines to meet for class projects and kids would be in the school buildings overnight trying to meet them. Some fell asleep in their chairs and Paula Wallace (the owner) saw that one day and had them replace the chairs with far less comfortable chairs. Some kids had heart attacks from staying up to meet deadlines. Such a bad work culture of "all-nighters". In part the students' fault, but none of the faculty really stopped it or discouraged it, save one teacher in a different major, and that being said, that teacher still gave ridiculous deadlines so we'd "be prepared for the industry". That's not at all what the industry is like (discluding the game industry right now). It is truly a hard place to thrive and everyone I've known who has graduated had months to years of burnout after finishing, including myself. I'd hazard real caution when choosing to go to a private art college, art institutes included.No education is worth that amount of debt.

K: Wow, that’s unfortunate to hear. I wonder if students are having similar experiences at colleges such as CAD or RISD?

D: I have heard very similar things about places like RISD and CAD where it’s all about the money, but I can’t point you towards any of the specifics. I really just want people to go into it with a clear head and know it’s going to be hard exiting. They really don’t prepare you for business.

K: What would you have done differently? Would you have signed up for online courses?

D: If I was to do it over, I would have liked to dive straight into developing personal projects, just making the work. Watching and reading free youtube videos and blog posts by artists. That would not have flown with my parents, they’re very by the book “go to college or get a job” type people. With than in mind, I would’ve gone to the local college I was within biking distance of as a sort of clean, and done fairly half assed studies by full assed my artwork.

K: That sounds like what a lot of artists, particularly those interested in digital art are doing. But, have you ever considered going back to school, or enrolling in a program or an atelier that you think would be beneficial to your art career?

D: Not genuinely. If I had time, I wouldn't mind enrolling in something that would teach me puppet animation, but between freelance and my day job, it's hard to find time to produce personal work and then also learn. I am pro-learning, always learning because that keeps your work fresh, keeps your mind sharp and ready to switch up on a dime. But course work is something I'm not super fond of, to be honest.

K: I understand. So, you've graduated and are currently doing freelance work along with your other day job. In your freelance work, what kind of work are you taking from clients?

D: Mostly I do storyboard animatics for a few advertising agencies, but I do some card art for games here and there, like Companion's Tale. I just signed on to do some tarot card artwork for a company called Legacy: Fables. I'll take anything that sounds interesting and that I have time for. It's all digital; traditional art is way more personal for me so I almost exclusively make traditional artwork as gifts for friends.

K: Are there any particular fandoms or genres that you tend to work more in?

D: As far as fandom work and commissions, it's Dragon Age all the way BABY! It's a good community and I owe a lot to them. I'm planning on reopening my tarot commissions here soon once I finish up a few of my freelance projects. I am an old hat with fantasy stuff and most comfortable there, but I really want to start working on robots and mechanics and cities. All that sci-fi goodness.

K: Wow, that's great to hear you've got very steady work, and they’re with industries and agencies! I hope you'll get to share that work once it's gone down the production pipeline. Have you ever considered applying for work with a company like EA/Bioware?

D: Yeah! I've lucked out a lot, it feels like all of this sort of dumped itself in my lap. My biggest resistance to applying to Bioware or any gaming industry position right is rooted in how they treat their workers. Bioware, specifically back when Anthem was released, had a nasty report come out on how management had run their workers to the point of many having mental breakdowns, and several just leaving and never coming back. They refer to those who have breakdowns while working during their months and months of crunch as "stress casualties", and I'm honestly quite disgusted by what I hear. I think once the gaming industry unionizes I'll consider applying, but the things I hear, not just about Bioware and EA... It's horrifying. Riot, Blizzard, Activision, Treyarch, Rockstar... the list could go on. Not to like tank the conversation into a dark place, I just have such strong feelings about it.

K: That's ok! It's good to hear different perspectives, especially when talking about the industry. Alright, on to the next question. Looking at your work, from sequential narrative to tarot artwork, I’m really impressed by your storytelling. When you’re creating stories and characters, do you pull a lot from your own experiences and emotions, or more from other sources such as music, film, or literature?

D: Ahh that's a hard one. I think I pull far more from outside of me than inside of me.The way things are shaped comes from my own experience, but I think a lot of my content comes from outside influences, like movies, books, music, and art.Howls Moving Castle, the book not the film, had a huge affect on me and how light I want the stories I tell to be, but I think I have a long way to go when putting stories together.I am super empathetic so it's easy to take outside influences and really feel them, but also it's hard to tell where I start and those influences ends.

K: Very well said, and the comment about the novel, I can really feel that in your personal work, especially your recent animated landscape piece.

D: Thanks!

K: The first time I came across your work was one of your Dragon Age tarot works, but also the tutorial on how you created them. It was incredibly helpful to me and I know to lots more artists. Your tutorials and words of advice have proven very successful, but have you ever received any advice or tutorials that really switched gears or level upped your techniques?

D: The answer is yes, absolutely. Let me see, I don't seek out tutorials anymore, but there was something I saw recently that was good. Sinix's head from any angle is a great approach to drawing faces at crazy angles. Also, check out Bunabi on Tumblr. Bunabi is so fast and her work is beautiful, and has great tutorials also, just incredible.

I unfortunately can’t link to any specifics, but tutorials like this one do me a lot of good.

People can just screenshot process stuff that reminds me that there are a million ways to approach art, like sketch up, grids, freehanding. I think I benefit from understanding that there are a million approaches more than following the tutorials super hard.

K: Great,thank you! I wanted to ask a few more questions, one about your Patreon. It seems like the next big wave for digital artists. How has it been creating one and keeping on top of the awards, and is there anything you would want to do differently with yours?

D: So Patreon is kind of a basket you can fill with prizes, maybe some of the prizes for money (probably prizes for money), and that works for a lot of people. I have a more of a "here's content I don't put elsewhere if you'd like it" approach to it cause I'm inconsistent with patron pay-outs. Patreon for artists with chronic mental illness is a struggle. Hands down. I started one hoping it would iron out my discipline issues a year or two back, and it didn't. It made me feel hella guilty cause I could not keep up with what I said I'd keep up with, and then I felt worse. It was disastrous. I refunded most of the pledges I got during the three months I had it open. Then I closed it for a year and brought it back online recently. Now all my content is free, it's still inconsistent, but if people want to support me I welcome it. I think Patreon is a good platform, but I will never be able to use it is intended. I respect the people who can keep up with it all, that kind of discipline takes a crazy amount of strength of character, but I don't motivate with money very well. In the end, I motivate through helping others as best I can, so it'll always be free content. I have very few plans for it, other than I want to put together a brush pack and share it there with brushes I made. I just need a moment to sit down and make that happen. I've got a tutorial for using photos to make quick painted backgrounds too, and I just have to organize that sucker.

K: Thank you for being so open about it. I think what you're doing is so insightful and helpful in what you're offering to your followers, especially those who may also be struggling with anxiety and depression.

K: Can you share what your process is like from a sketch to a finished piece? Do you thumbnail a lot before, use references to build from, and so on?

D: I like to do throw away thumbnails on notepaper.

And then I take those thumbnails and do a more thought out version digitally.

K: Wow, these are both beautiful. If you don't share these with patrons already, I would! I also like that you've given each one their own color, a good way to organize!

D: Thank you! I'll make sure to share these, I forget about them genuinely. I'll diverge in two directions from here depending on need. If what I'm working on is simple, I hop straight into color. If it's going to be complicated, ie crazy armor, specific architecture, I will do a line pass first and then launch into color. Either way, this is where most of my references come into play. Once that is solid I add detail work.

K: Reference can be so important in art; it really can bring work to a new level if used properly!

D: Yeah reference is king. I use it constantly, even when doing the most stylized thing, cause there's always stuff you forget. The waves I did for my last card, I had reference of barrel waves up constantly, and it helps a ton.

K: My last question is where do you see yourself in five years? I know this can be a challenging question, but if you had any goals or plans you’d like to see come into fruition, what would they be?

D: Five years? These questions are always a struggle for me. I try not to look past a week at a time because it's all so BIG. And my life has undergone so many huge changes in such a short period of time SO MANY times that it's hard to make long term plans. Especially when dealing with mental illness. So I try to think less about where I'll be in any amount of time, and more about what I want to progress towards achieving, it's a little easier and sets up less expectation. So this is not necessarily a five year plan, and more an eventual future plan. I want to have enough tutorial work to put together an art resources book/pdf online. I want to develop my freelance work further and create my own studio, ideally for illustrative style work, smaller animations, and maybe some classes for people interested in color and storytelling. I want to put together a small guide of sorts also for artists and people who need healing, since there's so many of us. That one is harder because it's an amorphous subject, but I think there's a lot of room for commentary there and a lot of people wanting to hear it, and I think it'll have to come from all those hurting. It's just a matter of how we'll organize that.I am a huge sap. That's my way. So in 5 years I'm hoping I'll be a better and more helpful sap.

K: Well, I hope you're able to make a lot of this happen, we need more empathy and help in the world. Thank you again Daphne for your time, this was really informative and an honest interview which I know others will appreciate.

D: Thank you, Kallie!

You can find more of Daphne’s beautiful works (and tutorials) here:

Patreon

Twitter

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cammiluna · 4 years

Photo

Sorry I’ve been mostly gone for the last few months. 2020 particularly has been a wild year for me personally.

My story actually started back in September when I applied for the JET program for the 4th consecutive year, as that in itself took up a significant amount of my time and attention.

I got rejected once again.

About two weeks prior to the rejection, I applied for a new job in Washington state. I got a referral from a close friend of mine. Got accepted for that job in less than 24 hours, but I was still waiting for the JET interview results (and the timeframe between acceptance and the first day of work was undoable to me as a broke New Yorker going to MAGFest on a shoestring budget

I had to take some mad commissions for that. To this day, some of those commissions are incomplete still

Two weeks after my 4th JET program rejection and the wave of depression and anger that followed, I got another call from the Washington job asking to come in 7 weeks later. I took the offer. Back at this time, people and governments were still slapfighting over whether to take a certain viral situation seriously or not.

Around the time I got that second call, I had a meltdown at work when the server died and more was expected of me handling it than I was able to do.

I had 7 weeks to find an apartment, downsize my belongings and find a way to get me, Kirby (my fish) and a tiny percentage of my belongings on a minimal budget. In doing so, I had to reach out to friends in private to avoid my former employer snooping around my social media.

I send in my 2-weeks notice and while I’m thankful I wasn’t fired right there for doing that, extra demanding work tasks were piled on me while I was preparing the move. Like having to teach computer-unsavvy people how to do my job and writing instructions on how to do these things; 99.99999% computer-related. I used up my vacation days to take days when i felt another meltdown coming and my former employer used that against me when they wanted me to make business cards with photographs for all staff members- something that would take several weeks when I only had four days left at work.

On top of everything, I’ve gotten a cold four times between November 2019 and March 2020 because the apartment’s heater broke down, the landlord would just keep smacking it to make it work temporarily, and my room wasn’t properly insulated so I froze all winter like I was sleeping out in the street.

So when I finally made it to Washington, I was a mess. Nasty cold, weakness, fatigue, everytime I tried to sleep, I had vertigo.

And $2700 in credit card debt from the move. My plane ticket was $150, but my [oversize/overweight] baggage fees were $400, delivery of my books and artist alley materials was another $150, setting up a new fish tank from scratch was almost $300 (not including parts that my friend had gifted him), and then some. I basically moved out here with my computers, 1/3rd of my video game collection (the rest were donated/sold), art supplies, Kirby, some rare/recent collecibles, and a week’s worth of clothing. Everything else had to be purchased after the move. Furniture, food, kitchenware, linens, etc.

A lot of items were donated from friends. I am beyond thankful to them!

And yes, Kirby came with me on a plane. You had to see the eyes bulging out of every TSA officer that saw me yoink a bag of live fish out of my carry-on, but I had a printout from the TSA website that indeed said that live fish are allowed through security checkpoint as long as they are in a sealed container.

yep.

Kirby also got sick. He had anxiety from the move and the new tank settings. We got him a cave to hide him, but it had a really rough surface and he injured himself bumping into it a few times. Cave was since removed.

So then I started my new job a week later. Four days into the new job, the office decided to close before corona could be a problem. I’ve been working from home ever since. The training was chill physical energy-wise, but very intense and full of information I had to retain. Also, this is my first customer service job, so I was super anxious the whole way. 2.5 months of training it was,

By the end of March, I had all the symptoms that Corona was known for. Nothing was severe, and I had no vehicle to go see a doctor (I made a dumb mistake and moved to a hilly suburb because the rent was cheap). It could have been corona, it could have been a venn diagram of my cold phasing out overlapping with anemia and anxiety, I guess we’ll never know. I found ways to get by while still working from home.

Kirby was also choking on his own air bubbles for March and April. I wasn’t able to get any info on why that would be. He is doing fine now.

Training is over now. I finally started seeking medical help last week because I’m still dealing with chest pain, fatigue, and shortness of breath which I was told could be anemia (worse than I’ve ever had it before). I’m still anxious because I’m on customer phone service full time now, but while it has a lot of challenges and I do get tired in the end (which could be anemic fatigue still), I’m a LOT less stressed out than I was at my old job. The pay isn’t much higher, but I’ve been able to live a much better life here. Got usable health benefits now and while the food is more expensive out here, you get a LOT more food for all those dollars spent. Also, since I’ve been too fatigued to cook much of the time (and I have a shitty electric stove that takes 45+ minutes to boil a pot of water), I can have healthy restaurant meals delivered via uber eats. Most of the restaurants in my service area serve REALLY TASTELESS FOOD, but some restaurants serve enough in one order to make for 2-3 meals.

but anyway. That’s what’s been going on now. Financial situation has improved greatly since I started getting paychecks out here. medical investigation is ongoing. I just need my energy back to start making regular art content again.

I have played Animal Crossing since the game came out. I will share the artwork I’ve managed to do soon, including some plague knight and mona/animal crossing crossover stuff such as the pic you see above.

Stay tuned and thanks for your patience.

#updates

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francisbaconguy · 4 years

Text

To anyone who wants to commission VivziePop for a full scale drawing according to this tweet: https://twitter.com/VivziePop/status/1261016646853902336

My advice: STOP AT ONCE!!!!

DO NOT!!! I REPEAT, DO NOT DO IT!!!! STAY AWAY FROM THAT TRASH OF A POST!!! Your just going to end up getting your money stolen for years on end! Why? Because Viv is not mature enough to handle it! She is not READY AND NEVER WILL BE!!!!

Viv, your fans aren’t your damn welfare check! It’s not there responsibility to clean up after your shit! It’s called a JOB!!! A job that you don’t hand! Being a producer and showrunner is a career only for professionals who are responsible and can actually do proper management!

If you want to pay a bill, get off your ass and work for it! Do freelance, an office job, even a yard sale! But WORK!

Don’t sit back on your ass and use their money to pay people to do cartoons for you!

If you want to animate too for your cartoons, be my guest! But there’s gotta be some money coming from that too!

A problem with Viv is that she makes a lot of hollow promises and tries to bite off more than she can chew. She wants to make Hazbin a reality, wants to make a Helluva series, wants to animate Zoophobia, Tinder, a series of comics; but she can’t get off her lazy ass to even work on these commissions.

If you ask me, she shouldn’t have done them; PERIOD!

Because they are a huge responsibility and God knows how many she has taken. And Patreons also have to get a fucking’ speedraw with their purchase. A FUCKING SPEEDRAW!!! Her priority should’ve went to the Patreons and Patreons alone because it’s all done on a monthly basis and God knows how much money stashed was given to her.

For the production or no, that’s still a lot of bacon they gave. Not to mention that merch sales are also padded to the pile for budget, even if contributors have been given a cut.

Viv is just not good with managing money from the looks of it. I have half the mind to believe that some portions of the commission money also pile to the budget too. And maybe it would’ve been wise for her to actually make a decent and appropriate budget and work within the limitations (such as animating yourself or maybe heaven forbid; cut corners like rigging) instead of overly-expensive stuff like using a union voice record for Helluva Boss and getting big time people like Parry Gripp and Weird Al Yankovic involved.

I compare Viv’s strategy between two artists that she worked with; Nico Colaleo and Maxwell Atoms; one whom was more strategical and one that had a complete flop.

Nico was the creator of Ollie and Scoops (Viv voiced in the show). He did everything he was suppose to do before tackling on a big production he created. He pitched it first, worked on his own show for Dreamworks, and was able to build connections, save a bundle by STILL WORKING (Netflix) and was able to assemble a crew that were far more into consistency and expressive than Hazbin. And that show is gonna get a hell lot of celebrities; I’m talking Matilda from the movie, Angry Video Game Nerd and Kevin “Batman” Conroy. I’m shocked Weird Al turned the show down. Could’ve had potential.

Maxwell created Billy and Mandy and had a film that he Kickstarted called Dead Meat (Viv volunteered for it). Maxwell did not do his research and while he made a great working environment and a unique concept, had to spend a large portion of the budget on the actors alone because it was union, and he didn’t do his paperwork / research correctly which makes him legally unable to complete it without making major changes that would’ve made the project different. Most of what he can do is figure out a way to properly refund the backers because it has been 10 years. At least he learned from his mistakes and had to officially explain it instead of hiding like a coward.

What does this have to do with commissions? Because not only do I sense that the commission money is going to clean up any messes she made for production, but I also think that it’s a primary example of her falling into a flop category as Maxwell is.

I fear that people who commission with Viv are just gonna end up with no money in their pocket while Viv tries to find someone who can clean up her spilled milk.

Also, I saw a lot of posts saying that animators at Hazbin aren’t paid at all or paid enough. Most of their justifications come from using Viv’s Patreon goal of “full time paid” or Animator Guilds’ union rates to justify the claim. I will say that unless someone who literally worked for Viv immediately justifies the claim, I wouldn’t listen to it.

Rates are gonna vary from studio to studio, artist to artist, job to job; there’s no such thing as a set pay-rate. Some are paid hourly, some are paid bi weekly or weekly, some follow a “per second” / “per minute” guideline. Pencilmation, Skynamic Studios, Hobbykids and most indie productions follow the same guideline, which is a good tactic to get cheap and fair work while dangling the creative freedom carrot around. From what’s to speculate and from people who work on productions similar to Viv, her productions pay a “per second” system.

Again, rates and numbers are gonna vary from duty and artist but that’s the same system used in many independent productions. Is it common? Yes. Is it the same benefit as union rates? No. But it doesn’t necessarily support the not paying enough theory when you don’t even know the living conditions of said artists who work for Viv in the first place. For all you know, Viv’s job saved their unemployment.

However that doesn’t mean not all artists were comfortable working with Viv. There was a voice actor who was initially gonna sing as one of the main characters in one of Viv’s projects but was mysteriously replaced without his knowledge. According to him, working with Viv was stressful. Another storyboard artist was annoyed drawing her characters and was wanted to get the “damn” thing over with because they were awful. This shows that Viv can’t please everyone she works with.

All of this attributes on how Viv wants to overdo her creative urges by creating MORE and MORE. It’s okay to create outlets of materials such as cartoons and comics to keep your creativity alive, but doing too much will burn you out, which is what happened to her. She burns out too much which makes her unable to complete what she owed.

Hence why I say; DO NOT COMMISSION HER AGAIN!!! LET VIV FEND FOR HERSELF! LET HER USE HER CREATIVE VIBE ON ACTUAL WORK TO GET PAID! LET HER WORK HER ASS OFF!!!

If you wanna do it out of her own free will, go ahead. But I will advise to think it through. If you let her goat you to donate, what would you possibly have to gain from it? What’s in it for you; for the long year wait of a simple drawing?

Which btw, has a lot of questioning onto the price. While some artists do have high prices worth for their time, her room for improvement on her own artwork (anatomy, perspective) mixed with her inability to make deadlines kinda makes the price skeptical to worth that large amount.

So again, those who donate, what’s in it for you?

And if you want to donate just for the sake of the art, Don’t. Just don’t. Save your money and let her earn hers. She will be fine financially working on her own.

UPDATE: It came to my attention that Hazbin has officially been picked up for a TV show deal. Well I’m proud of Viv for making her dream a reality. However, unless I see an update on Viv on how she wants to handle the process of commissions owed or were in the Patreon, this post is still staying up. But now that she’s gonna be playing in the big leagues, please don’t commission her until she cleans up her mess. It’s better for her sake and yours!

#vivziepop

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cantgetoutofmyheda · 5 years

Note

46. What if i told you... clexa

If someone had told a younger version of Lexa that she would one day find herself in a conference room with the head of marketing for 20th Century Fox Films, she would have laughed in their face—but here she was, sitting face-to-face with Indra.

The woman pursed her lips, making a calculated decision in her head before finally speaking, “Listen, Lexa. It’s the company’s 85th anniversary. We need to go big, that’s why we’re here talking to you,” she paused, waiting for Lexa to acknowledge the compliment, “I’ll be honest, we received a lot of good proposals from your competitors, but there’s something about Vice that has just been speaking out to me.”

Lexa nodded and tugged her lips into a grin, “Is it the exceptional branded content we make for our partners? Our network of publications we have ties to? The culturally relevant events we plan on a weekly basis?” She lifted her brow before she continued, “Indra, I promise you that if you go with my team, the whole world will know that your company will be throwing the party of the year. Forget the Met Gala, everyone’s going to want an invite to this.”

Indra couldn’t help but laugh at the younger woman’s enthusiasm, “They don’t call you ‘The Commander’ for nothing, huh?”

“So I’ve been told,” Lexa smirked.

“Okay,” Indra sighed, “Put your best team on it. I want a huge campaign—media running at least a month before the event. Co-branded billboards. Hell, I want every damn bus, cab, and train wrapped in our posters.”

“You got it,” Lexa nodded as she jotted down notes.

“And,” Indra lifted her index finger, “I want your creative department to vet all the artists through me. I give final approval on the commissioned pieces, and I am counting on your creatives to make sure that our vision isn’t being taken away.”

Lexa nodded again, “Of course,” she couldn’t help the grin on her face as she stuck out her hand, “So do we have a deal?”

Indra let out a chuckle, reaching for the brunette’s hand, “It seems as so.”

---

“It’s going to be fucking sick, Lexa,” Anya smiled, flipping through a Keynote presentation, “Indra approved every single artist I chose and their initial concepts.”

“Knew you’d come through,” Lexa shrugged.

“Oh,” Anya turned to face her, “As if I’ve never come through with mind blowing plans?”

“You do,” she shrugged again, “that’s why you’re our creative director.”

Anya placed her hand on Lexa’s shoulder, “Exactly. Now are you ready for me to run through production timelines? They’re kind of tight, but I know we can make them work.”

Lexa sat on the lounge chair across Anya’s desk and kicked her feet onto the small coffee table, “Hit me.”

“Alright,” Anya flipped to another slide, “We give the artists approval today to start their pieces and check in next Tuesday for revisions—that’s over a week from now, which should be enough time. By the following Tuesday, we do one more round—hopefully working with the final product. Once Indra gives the ‘okay,’ she chooses eight of the thirty pieces to highlight in the advertising leading up to the event, and the rest will be unveiled there.”

Lexa nodded, the tip of her ballpoint pen was sitting at the corner of her mouth, “We’ll need to digitize all the paintings as soon as they’re finished in order to get the right specs for the billboards and transit wraps, then your team will have to work pretty quick to get some editorial pieces, digital videos of the story behind the eight pieces, and all the online banners.”

“All built into the timeline,” Anya shook her head, “Have you no faith in me?”

“I know,” Lexa nodded, “I know. It’s just the biggest partner we’ve ever had and biggest campaign and event we’ve ever done, it needs to be perfectly executed.”

Anya looked at her friend dead in the eyes, “And it will be.”

---

To say that the campaign leading into the event was successful would be the understatement of the year. The ads using the re-imaged artwork for the film house’s famous movie posters was the talk of the town—talk of the country. Every publication was writing about them, streaming for the eight movies chosen had nearly tripled on Netflix, Hulu, and Prime, compared to this time period last year. Lexa was beyond happy—exhausted, but beyond happy.

“Stop stressing,” Anya rubbed her friend’s arm, “everything’s going to be perfect.”

“I know, it’s just,” Lexa rubbed her temple before smoothing her pressed white button up which was neatly tucked into her slim-fitting suit pants, “this is it. It’s the climax of the whole activation—all eyes are on it.”

“Go mingle and check out all the posters, Lex,” Anya gave her a gentle nudge forward, “Hell, grab a glass of wine, too. I know you haven’t seen all the final art yet, go take a look and enjoy yourself for a bit—it’s well deserved.”

Lexa nodded, “Okay, yeah. Just call or text me if you need anything.”

Anya rolled her eyes, “Just go.”

---

Lexa found herself sipping her wine and staring at a painting that depicted one of her favorite movies. She knew that someone was commissioned to do this piece, it was actually one of the ones she didn’t want to see the concepts and mocks for—wanting to be surprised during the unveiling of the showcase. She stood, sipped, and stared, hoping to find answers to her questions within each brush stroke.

“You’ve been standing here for a while,” a voice next to her observed.

Lexa turned to face the stranger and was taken aback by how piercing her blue eyes were, “I have. And I presume you have too, if you’ve taken notice to me.”

The woman smiled, “I saw you from across the room a few minutes ago. I’ve been making my way through the exhibit. I was pretty surprised to see still handing here as I made my way around.”

Lexa returned the smile, “I see. So, are you in the film industry or are you a fan of art?”

“The latter,” the woman smiled, “Do you have a favorite piece from tonight?”

Lexa turned back to the painting in front of her, “I think I’m still trying to decide. What about you?”

“Easy,” she answered, “over in the Modernism section—Mannequin, the 80’s movie with Kim Cattrall.”

Lexa furrowed her brow, “I actually don’t think I know it. What’s it about?”

The woman laughed, “80’s rom-com. Kim Cattrall plays a department store mannequin that comes to life. It’s so bad that it’s good. One of my all time guilty pleasures.”

“Sounds interesting,” Lexa smirked, “Might have to check that one out.”

“So,” the blue-eyed beauty stepped closer to Lexa, “tell me what’s so interesting about this piece for you. I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I’d assume there’s something piquing your interest since you’ve been standing here for so long.”

“I–,” Lexa started, “Well, this is one of my favorite movies of all time.”

The woman nodded for her to continue.

Lexa smiled, “I knew this was being commissioned, but I wasn’t expecting this particular poster to be used. I know there were a few different ones floating around when the movie was in theaters, but this one was one of the more uncommon ones. I’m not bummed about it, just trying to understand why the artist chose this one to represent the film.”

She brought her attention back to the piece—it’s true, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was one of her favorite movies of all time, and arguably the best Star Wars movie in the entire saga. Mostly everyone knew the iconic poster: Darth Vader in the shadows of the background, with Han Solo and Princess Leia in an almost-kiss in the foreground, and Luke and the droids at their side. This piece, however—this piece didn’t depict that poster. This one had Darth Vader most prominent with Stormtroopers rushing to the foreground. The film’s protagonists all had a certain fear cast in their eyes—it showcased the power of the Dark Side, not the optimistic resistance of the Light Side that people were used to.

“I see,” the woman interrupted her train of thought, “it’s nice to see something so out of the ordinary for such an iconic movie, though. Don’t you think?”

Lexa nodded, “Absolutely, I think the thing that’s on my mind is just wanting to know why the artist chose to do their depiction on this poster.”

“So,” the woman took another step closer, now entering Lexa’s personal space, “are you industry or a fan of art?”

“Both, I suppose,” Lexa said, scanning the woman in front of her up and down, “I work for Vice, my team put the campaign and event together—though I am a big fan of art, even outside of this project,” she tugged the corner of her mouth into a smirk and reached her hand forward, “Lexa Woods.”

The woman took Lexa’s hand in hers, giving it a light shake, “What if I told you I was the artist behind this commission?”

Lexa raised a brow, but before she could respond, the woman spoke up again, “Clarke Griffin. It’s a pleasure.”

“Clarke,” Lexa repeated, surprised at the way the woman’s named rolled so seamlessly off her tongue, “Pleasure is all mine. Maybe I could pick your brain about your piece, then?”

Clarke raised a brow, “How about over a drink?”

“Well,” Lexa raised her glass of wine, “I already have one, so maybe we should get one for you?”

Clarke bit her bottom lip, “I was thinking something outside of a work setting—because that’s technically what this is for you, right? Me as well, I suppose.”

Lexa smiled, “I see. Are you asking me out for a drink?”

“I guess I am,” Clarke grinned, “But only for the sake of Star Wars and artistic expression.”

“Only?” Lexa raised a brow.

Clarke corrected herself, “Mostly.”

“I see,” Lexa smirked, “tomorrow at 7? Wine bar down the street?”

“Sure,” Clarke nodded with a grin plastered on her face.

“Well then,” Lexa cocked her head to the side, “I suppose it’s a date.”

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