#AND ALSO . THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE COMPLIMENTS ON MY ART (<- sideblog is mawixtys. to clarify)

[oneironautz]

wenmt to follow you and saw this

and thought it was gonna say "dni" and after seeing you spam my notifs i was a little afraid but phew luckily

SKJDSAKGFSHDGSIHDGKH SORRY. the ol razzle dazzle,

[hypo-critic-art]

omg there is no toggle to ask anonymously, OKAY WHATEVER IT'S FINE. DON'T MESS THIS UP, ME!!!

First of freaking all I absolutely adore your art. I know you get that a lot, CLEARLY. But I truly mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say that your drawings bring me the most dazzling snazzi-licious glammourful amount of pure unbridled joy. It's so rare to see realism artists in fandom spaces, so when I come across one, I just HAVE to let them know what an honor they are serving.. I say this because as a fellow artist who is working their way towards realism, I find it so hard to imagine characters as how they would really look in real life! So people like you seriously do a major service in helping me visualize said characters as real people... does that make sense? Now let me prefice that I am not throwing shade at artists who don't draw in a realism style, OBVIOUSLY. I'm just clarifying in case my compliment came off as back handed. LOL.

I especially love your Ford drawings so so much.. you give him life, and it's just so beautiful.. he truly looks exactly how I picture him. You made my vague imagination come to life and I admire you for that so freakin' much. May I ask, do you use references of real people when drawing ? Cuz if not, HOW ARE YOU SO GOOD AT PUTTING YOUR THOUGHTS ON PAPER LIKE THAT. AUGH! Like that one pic of Grunkle Stan struggling with his phone? That's just SO HIM. I'm so impressed by your work, friend. If you DO use references, please help a guy out!!! Tell me what the heck to look up!?!? Specifically for drawing Ford and Stan, I wanna draw them super realistic like you do.

Sorrryyyy for rambling, you don't even have to answer this I just wanted to let you know how amazing you are.. you really inspire me. You inspire a lot of people. Have a stantastic day/night :-3

hi hello!! thank you for the ask :]

i would turn anons on if i was able to do it on my sideblogs :( and i’m sorry for such late response, i had quite a busy week

but!! thank you!!! <:D all feedback is welcome, and each comment makes me want to create more!!!! i feel really happy knowing that others enjoy the art i do!!!

like you said, i may have a thing for realism(ish?) - both in my traditional and digital art. but i absolutely adore and envy artist who create most intricate, unique, colourful, bouncy, abstract, simplistic or any other personal style!!!!

i do also love artists who can see highly stylised characters and transform them into more realistic styles, which is what i’m trying to do with my gravity falls art :]

i’m learning realism to be able to break the rules of it and i have a long way until i define my style for sure 😅

and about Ford… gosh, i kept rereading that part of your ask so many times, I love Ford so much and i’m glad that i made him proper justice - thank you so much!!!! thank you :'D

i do use reference pictures!! i don’t think i’d be able to pull such realism without them, and i think they’re really helpful even when one’s drawing even more stylised and less-realistic characters. before i draw a character i’ve never drawn before i look up images of people on pinterest, with stan and ford i used to type something like "old man photo reference" and then i let myself to get lost for hours in sea of images and references. when you manage to find someone, somebody famous, an actor, or a model who matches your idea of a character - that’s when you striked bingo!! i actually used pictures of two actors to inspire my design of grunks but i will never say which ones (though i’ve seen someone guess ford’s inspiration correctly in the notes lmao)

once i find a reference i like, i study it, sketch it couple of times and while i’m keeping anatomy and some elements of facial structure of a person on a picture i have to keep in mind the look of the og animated character, like a big nose, thick eyebrows, big ears and so on, adding those to the drawing too. and then shading when i feel like it.

i really thank you so much!! i feel really honoured to be an inspiration to someone, and i hope i could help you at least a little bit!!

have a stantastic day/night too :]

[intheorangebedroom]

Hi Maddie! I hope you are having a wonderful September and you are enjoying the start of autumn. This might sound obsessed or weird, but PTMY and TYBTM are seriously some of my favorite things I've ever read... ever, like I'm putting it up there with novels I've read. It is insane to me how much talent there is in this fandom. Like the Pedro girlies are literal authors, putting out works of art. For me, you are the best of the best! Obviously, both stories have me very hot and bothered lol, but it's just the way you write intimacy and relationships, the peculiarities of your characters and the world's they inhabit so brilliantly, beautifully. I'm sure you know that at times you write like it is poetry! It is so immersive and I love it deeply. My question (apologies in advance) is about writing. I was wondering if you have any tips on (a) how you have improved as a writer, like in terms of how you've been to find your style? (b) how to overcome perfectionism? I've been wanting to take a crack at some Frankie ideas I've had, but I get so weighed down by self doubt and inertia. And also, I worry it's just not original enough. Okay, sorry for the rant! I will never be as good as you OBVIOUSLY lol, but for you I am grateful. I'm so excited for the next part of TYBTM and sad we are almost halfway to the end. I'm so excited for whatever you have in store for the future. Sending you so much love and hope you're having a great day.

Hey Nonnie 🧡

I apologise in advance for the length of this answer. 

Your kindness, your generosity and your time mean everything to me. I’m the worst at expressing gratitude when I’m paid a compliment. "Compliment" doesn't cut it to qualify what you said about my stories, it’s too much, it’s so incredibly kind. You made me so soft but also so much stronger. Thank you 🧡 My first impulse upon reading your message was to throw away my phone and scream I’VE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK I’M DOING but I owe it to you to at least try to answer you. Also do you need some blood? A kidney? I have two. You name it it's yours.

I would like to start with the second part of your question, if you don’t mind. 

I have never ever thought any given piece I wrote to be perfect. At best, I think it’s not that bad, but that’s when I read it again a month after posting, because at the time I post it, it’s more like omfg if I read that shit one more time I’m gonna stab myself in the eye.” 

But life is too short for perfectionism. I’m sorry to be speaking like an old fart, but it is. You blink and it’s over. If you have a milligram of creativity in you, do not hesitate. Channel it. Create what you want, what you like. I’m serious. DO IT. Enjoy doing it. 

Self-doubt is a fucking bag of dicks. I’m riddled with it. In every corner of my existence. Every step of the way. Every word I type (not in my mother tongue…). How many times have I wanted to give up, especially during PTMY. The current tybtm chapter has fucking killed me dead. I hate it. It’s not good. Bad. But I’m forty fucking five years old and I’ll be damned if I let self-doubt and fear prevent me from achieving what I set out to do.

When I came back to tumblr in 2020, I saw numerous posts saying “you write for yourself first,” and I did not really understand what they meant. It’s nice to have an audience! It’s nice to be liked and validated! It’s nice to connect with people over something you’ve created. Musicians play live, and get a hell of a kick out of it, right? Why not us, writers? And one day, I think at the beginning of tybtm, it hit me. I understood. Fuck yeah I’m doing this for me. Because I need it. I need to tell this story. I need the satisfaction of having done it. The entire process makes me both incandescently happy and abysmally miserable, and you know what? That’s the fucking spice of life. I want both. I am alive when I write. Through the pleasure and the pain. So if you need it too, well, go for it. Don't let anyone, including you, tell you you're not good enough. Got for it.

There are 99% of chances that what you’re gonna write has already been written. So what? It hasn’t been written by you. No one sees people, life, or Frankie the way you do. Even if you write an age-old trope, even if you write the same trope over and over again in every story (me!), you’ll still bring your own precious singularity to the story, the characters, and the narration. That’s worth EVERYTHING. Please trust me. Maybe no one will like it. Maybe every one will like it. Whatever. At the end of the day, you still did what you set your heart on. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Carpe diem, baby.

Then, how did I improve as a writer, oh Nonnie, I’ve no idea. I don’t think I’m any good. I don’t think I am legitimate to give you any advice. 49.5% of the time, I think I’m too much (too gothic, too lyrical, too big with the feelings and emotions). 49.5% of the time, I think I’m not enough (not precise, concise, clear, good enough). But alright, I’ll try. For you. But please bear in mind I say all this in the most humble spirit.  

I write. All the time. In my head, in the shower, walking in the street, driving, aaaaaall the time. And then I type it down in a doc. And edit it and revise it again and again and again, until it feels smoother and/or I want to puke at the thought of having to go through it again. 

I try to take my time without panicking. If I’m stuck or in a bad mental place, I try to let it rest a bit.

My first year at uni, I studied screenplay writing. I would be unable to tell you precisely what I learned, but I think some of it is ingrained? In terms of conveying intentions through actions and dialogues (I know I tend to write pages and pages of introspection, and I swear I try to restrain myself, even if it doesn’t always translate to the doc).

Then, I’m an art vampire. I soak up everything I can, especially painting, music, and movies. I let it inspire me. I take notes on my feelings, fleeting emotions that I can’t articulate at first, and reflect and work on them until they become fully formed ideas I can inject in the writing. 

I read. A lot. And sometimes not at all when it feeds the self-doubt (comparison, you bitch!). I wait until I feel better, stronger. It may take time. 

With books/fanfics and movies, I analyse the narrative process employed. What I liked or disliked, what moved me, what didn’t. I take notes. To that effect, you can read reblogs of your favourite fics! Sometimes people reblog with some pretty neat analyses, just soak it up!

My obsession is finding the Right Word. I can spend days on the quest. A thesaurus helps. And sometimes it doesn’t. I also read my stuff out loud, because I like when it has a certain rhythm. And when the meaning of a sentence doesn’t work in a rhythm, I rework it tirelessly until it does. Fun times... 

I want to say that if you take the leap and start writing, after a while, you will feel instinctually what works for you. What feels right in terms of personal style. Maybe at the beginning you'll subconsciously write like someone else, but with practice and patience, your style will come out. If you need someone to cheer you on, I'm here.

Oh yeah because, very important, I whine to the very good angel friends in my phone whenever I’m stuck (they will recognise themselves if they read this)(okay they are @dreamymyrrh and @pedrit0-pascalit0). I forfeit all dignity and beg them for virtual hugs. I don't know what I did to deserve them.

And lastly, I have been privileged to witness the genius of Kelli ( @frannyzooey ) in the works and wow. She's it for me. Everything she writes resonates with me, so I just soak. it. up.  

So yeah. to sum it up: carpe diem and be a vampire 🦇

Hope that helps 🧡

I’m also gonna leave that here: 

Claire ( @just-here-for-the-moment ) is one of the best people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet here. She’s patient, sweet, kind, and SO FUCKING SMART. Don't be afraid to reach out.

Nonnie, again, I'm so sorry this is so long. I sincerely hope you'll find something useful in all this gibberish. If not, come back to my ask box with any question. And again, thank you 🧡 From the bottom of my broken vampire heart, thank you 🧡

[purpurea-lucensis]

about this ask meme!

I feel like it's a little hard to decide on a trademark for you, because for me there are two things that stand out equally.

On a 'vibe of your blog' angle; enthusiasm. You are so genuinely delighted about your OCs (as you ought! they slap!) and about other folks' OCs, and getting to take part in chatting w/other people in the community. It's infectious in the best way, it's lovely.

But similarly I can't help but consider your art style as you've developed it. It's distinctive in a way that evokes a very specific set of memories - when I took a fabric arts class in college and learned how to hand-carve stamps for printing designs on cloth. The shapes of the stamps our teacher made had this splendid stylization and energy, where you knew that these elegant curves with their weight and shape were carved from the material around them. Your art carries some of that same bold energy paired with precise command of lineweight.

tagging my sideblog @reckless-drivers-pack for vtm ask managementtt

oh man this is actually so sweet to hear wow honestly it took me a bit to process it

im honestly glad to hear that i come across as enthusiastic rather then overbearing about characters. they are my little blorbos from my mind, the children of my neurons, the little dolls i use to play toys with.

Honestly happy my enthusiasm ends up being contagious. People SHOULD be enthusiastic about their characters and i honestly love hearing people yap about their victories and woes and all the thoughts behind the character :3

Also wow that is such a vivid image for my art... thank you so so much...

My art is mainly inspired by vtm v1's core book (or at least part of it) but recently ive started expanding a bit to include newsprints ads and comics from the 50's (i recently gifted a friend a collection of original newspapers from 1955, so i got quite the amount of references) but also there is definitely some influence from pyrography art, which is something i studied for a couple years in middle school, at a summer camp.

If you know anything about pyrography you know that it works pretty similarly to carved-stamps so i can definitely see the association (although pyrography works by removing/burning material where you want the lines rather then carving around them)

Also honestly that is such a big compliment for me i dont really know how to respond magsnsg

Thank you so so much

[trashdumper]

uhm hi i am going INSANE over your art like oh god every time your sfth art is on my dash i stare at it for too long and contemplate printing it out 😔 NO SERIOUSLY I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOUR FANART YOU SOMEHOW CAPTURE THEIR PERSONALITY AND ENERGY SO WELL??? like sorry but your aj????? IDK I LOVE YOU THANK YOU BYEEEE

(oh also @dawn-speckled is my sfth sideblog just if you're confused why the blog i'm sending this from is 0% sfth)

Thank you...TTTTTT This is great great compliment from you...I appreciate it a lot that you like my aj...it's...idk my aj is...anyway I'm glad you could like my aj..somehow he owns a special place in my mind..so does Tom...anyway thank you for liking my illusions of them...thank you so much

[noelledeltarune]

Dw, you're fine. That was my sideblog. (I'm on anon so, like, this doesn't prove anything but hehe isn't my main either so. That also wouldn't prove anything.)

Anyway! Not weird at all! I'm really glad and flattered to hear that my fics have brought so much joy to you! The best compliment I could get, really, you've made my day!

(Sidenote: how did you know? I guess it's not that hard I gave them matching usernames but still.)

OKAY GOOD THANK YOU i really did figure but then the off-chance that some unrelated person with a similar url happened to be using your art as an icon hit and i was like Fuck

but yes genuinely you're my favourite writer for them ever i re-read your fics like Frequently. the cold-open for Two Car Train gets me every time and Misfits is like one of the only fics i still check in for when i'm not actively "into" the source. + your one-shots and other stories are just delightful. one could say i'm a fan of your work

and yeah it was the matching usernames and icon LOL. you reblogged something from my art account the other day and i think my main at some point? i definitely wouldn't have seen that account otherwise

[tyrantchimera]

For some reason I had no clue you had a tumblr or even drew art until it came up on my dash but I always see you in the ao3 tag for ZX 😭 I’m actually cooking up something for that tag-albeit it’s a crossover and I’m nervous how people will react lol-but I salute you for always constantly being dedicated to it because it’s one of the mega man tags that struggles. (Sadly not shocking given it’s a unpopular sub series) I too carry a different fandom tag but you person are so goated with all your omega fics, even if I need to caught up on them lol.

Heh, yeah, not an uncommon occurrence! I think I need to link my art to my fics more, not a lot of people seem to realize I do art and commissions lol. I think I've put some reminders in the notes for Finders Keepers but maybe some actual embedding is required...

I hope you have some success! It's understandably a small fandom, but with persistence I find that it's a fandom with a lot of engagement. I have more comments on my Finders keepers fic, with barely 100+ kudos, than I do on my FFVII fic with nearly 2k kudos! Granted I think a third of those comments are one particularly enthusiastic fan lol, but it's not always about the size of a fandom. Speaking of, crossovers seem popular lately for the ZX fandom. There's a twilight one that's rockin', a Breath of the Wild one, I think a Battle Network one, and a few others. Let me know when you post your work! I'd like to take a peek.

"Goated"? Aw hey, thanks so much for the compliment! I do my best to make content, and the fact that I'm hyperfixated on the subject right now certainly helps lol. It also helps when awesome people like you contact authors/artists like me, because it really makes my day to know that I'm making a positive impact on people.

As for my fics, they're not going anywhere if I can help it! Take your time to read and enjoy them. I have a specific sideblog for FK related stuff (@finderskeepersfanfiction) or one for my general art (@tyrantchimeraart). I'd also recommend a couple of other stories like "It's That Damn Fluorescence" and "For the Glory, For the Fame", fics done by authors I'm friends with. We're trying to revive this fandom by force, so every new member counts for a lot!

Thanks again for your kind words! It people like you that keep me going in the ZX fandom!

(PS: new chapter is out today! Linking to it soon!)

[deancrowleycas]

Wait lamiasage is your sideblog? Omfg I literally had no idea and only connected the dots now. Anyway: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! also, your art is amazinggg!!! rock it

Suprise! Don't worry, it happens regularly, and it's not as if I would go around and tell everyone and it also isn't linked anywhere, I just like to keep my art separate from the spam :) Thank you so much for both the birthday wishes and the compliment!