#learning how to draw new characters my beloathed...

[marzipanladyart]

watching KCD 1 walkthrough and all I care about is them... u_u

[clonehighdoublehelix]

MARCH COMMUNITY POST

This month on a very special Double Helix...

Abe thinks his clone is a closet case; Joan and Cleos clones have surprises of their own, Caesar is introduced to Tumblrs favourite holiday and Scudworth takes in a show.

Now let's take a look at some of the comments the blog received in the merry merry month of March:

General Feedback

What’s better than a callout post? A shoutout post 😎

You better start believin' in the Double Helix fandom, G-Spot- because YER IN ONE!

Kind words from my follower-in-law. Hope you continue to enjoy safely from outside the blast radius!

We are (still) so back.

Thank you! I wanted to find a way to incorporate Lincoln’s legendary cheekbones. I referenced popular skinny boys like Chalamet and Young Pattinson.

In animation, they have to draw the characters so many times over, it makes sense that Abe and JFk’s faces are basically blocks. Low pencil mileage!

Since I only have to draw the original characters once per panel, I was able to give them a little more detail though early on I abandoned too many accessories or patterned clothes. I'll take the easy road every time!

ABE AND GABE FEEDBACK

fun fact: Rainbow Abe was long-game foreshadowing for this comic. Lord and Miller told me so in a dream I had while painting my room with the windows shut.

Hahaha it’s cool that people get the new clones. Gabe reckons if body spray makes you smell good, using more must make you smell even betterer.

And thank you! Like all fans, I’m cherry-picking the parts I like and hopefully adding enough of my own ideas to make for something new-ish. Mmmm, taste the mild originality!

JOAN AND DARCY FEEDBACK

I think she can secretly do this:

Thanks for showing love to Darcy! She didn't mean to trigger Joan...

CLEO AND PATTY FEEDBACK

I'm glad people agree with me that Patty is adorable, in part because was the clone that took the longest to design (I find the original Cleo hard enough to draw). Yay Patty! ❤️️❤️️❤️️

I don't know if 'nice' is how I'd describe Cleos personality but I'm glad people enjoy me characterising her that way. Maintaining the tone of the original season is my whole mission statement.

Cleos vicious streak is very important to me. No joking, this is my favourite Cleo moment of all time:

That said, she could use a stern talking to:

APRIL FOOLS FEEDBACK

Oh yeah, they totally did! A vision in Obi-Wan blue.

I was really expecting hails of rotten tomatoes for even joking about killing off Gandhi, so I'm I'm relieved everyone liked my little prank!

*waves at Venture Bros fandom from across the hall*

AND MORE FEEDBACK STILL

We all tried to save him 😔Another victim of AirPods.

Just a proper gentlemen at the cinema

People are STARVING for more clones. Don't fill up on bread!

When I joke about hype for Sheepman but people actually are:

That’s good because there’s more Sheepman where that came from!

BUT if you want to commission a design through my Ko-Fi, I’ll be more than happy to learn!

And let’s hear it for the comics newest patron, Blazer! (Any relation to Jolly Gene Jumper?)

Thank you again for so much positive engagement (influencer speak, my beloathed 🤮)

The comments and replies continue to be generous and encouraging and I really enjoyed answering the questions in my inbox, even if I'm a little weisenheimer most of the time.

Oh and we were honoured with our very first fanart featuring Gabe!

These kids today, always looking at their phones smdh.

Thank you much @garbagefirelol! ✨

Next Month on a Very Special Double Helix...

Heading into April, I'll be posting what is probably my favourite chapter so far. I was so excited that I drew it immediately after the 'walking to school' intro. I don't think I've been too coy about which character it features, so I'm really stoked to see the responses.

Stay High everyone!

@zanzibarindahouse @theabesimp @gspot-rocks-the-gspot @chromo-strand23 @moondove330 @youdonelostyourmind @iloveevilwomen @cateat @kalisseo @kimtiny @topherbuttz @jfkonfucius @gaybelincoln @tumbleweedsthesecond @ghost-in-my-bed @gandhiclonehighlover @shrimpyfellow @ladyaupair @kittykat1481 @smallpox-juicebox @astro2ndbase @daniel-day-lewis-nemesis @starrysys @galacticstarslove17 @latibulater @pawrklean @hockeypuckk @i8utl3rtr0n @h7p3r4ct1v3-h0rn3t2 @knightpunks @jerseybumpkin @80r1517m8 @sugarbizzy @jayydeng @sammykisser @molqr @hench-thyme @weirdmageddon @neutrallyobsessed @raffa-taff

[bluedalahorse]

Okay, I’ll bite. Posts like this one on the confessions blog kind of make me wonder/worry about how I come across on tumblr. I’m one of those people who’s 200% down for the secondary characters in YR, particularly the controversial ones. I’m also someone who’d been lurking for a while prior to season 2 airing, but joined tumblr a little bit after season 2 to finally start discussing with people.

Given the way the post I linked above resonates with some of the themes I made a post about few days ago, it seems like the anon and I might both be struggling with some of the patterns of conversation in fandom. That said, we’re coming from very different places. And given the way I engage with this fandom, I sometimes wonder if I’m the antagonist in someone’s fandom story.

I do recognize that some of my posts come from a place where I could come across as pretentious, lecturing, or overbearing in some way. When I first de-lurked this fandom, I talked about a lot of the show in terms of craft and literary theory and such, in part because I’m in grad school for just that and in part because I hang out with a friends group IRL who uses that existing vocabulary to discuss things we love. I was also using the academic voice with a dose of sarcasm thrown in as a sort of armor, because I knew my favorite characters in the show (Sara and August) were so widely beloathed by so many people. I was worried that if my first post was “wow they sure are cute even if they’re messy; where do I find the fanfic?” I wouldn’t make friends, or possibly would even get chased off of tumblr. I figured it was much safer to come in and say things like “I find it really interesting to see how their relationship is a narrative foil to Wilmon’s, and them being together really raises the stakes of the drama” and keep my Big Feelings to myself. (Especially since some posters can be pretty nasty about my faves, and make assumptions about what I’m an “apologist” for when I talk about them.) I still lean into academic speak to some extent—like I said, it’s part of who I am even outside of YR, so it’s hard to shake. But rest assured there is fannish passion behind it, and also know I don’t think academic speak should be a requirement for participating in fandom.

I’m also wondering… what role should making the case for the characters and plotlines one loves play in establishing one’s fandom presence? Like, in general? Ultimately my motive when I make my posts, analysis or otherwise, is to invite people to play in my weird little sandbox with me. (If they want to, of course!) I recognize that some of my fandom opinions/hills I will die on are what they are, so I imagine some folks don’t want to change their opinions any more than I do. But I also recognize that in more than two decades of being in fandom, there are times when someone else’s passion for a character or a take on some aspect of a show or book really led me to see something new and interesting, or hook on to particular rarepairs or whatever else. That’s the beauty of fandom as a community—we all get more excited about things together and share our love of things. Since some of my favorite aspects of YR are much much more rarely represented in fanworks, I’m usually talking about how I adore them in hopes that I’ll continue to find the people who like the things I like, and in hopes that maybe I’ll spark something in someone’s brain and they’ll write a cool fic or draw cool art or something. Talking to people here has made me more interested in pairings like Walty and Stedrika, which I didn’t think about as much before on my first watchthroughs of the show. So anyway… I do know there’s some folks out there who are never gonna be interested in what I’m interested in. I also know there are folks, myself included, who’ve learned things from what other people are passionate about. I also know there are some opinions that seem a lot more unpopular than they are until someone voices them.

I recognize that the two factors above—a tendency toward academic speak, and another tendency to make the case for the less popular things I love about the show in hopes that people will join me, combined with maybe me not having the best day or not choosing my words well—all that together and I could I see how I could come across as pretentious or holier-than-thou or looking down on people. (And admittedly there are times where my posts come from a place of frustration about the way certain characters are talked about. I think we’ve all been there at one time or another.) It really isn’t my intention to come across in a negative way, but I can see how it would happen. It’s also possible I’m doing something that completely doesn’t register with me at all, but it’s super hurtful to others. I may not know the full extent to how I’ve bothered someone, because ultimately I am just in my own head.

If I’ve hurt you or made you feel crappy in your time being a fan on tumblr, I am truly sorry. I’m open to talking about it if you want to talk about it, but also, zero pressure if you just kind of want to hang out in your own space and do your own thing.

To sum up… it seems like on one hand there’s a portion of fandom that seems to want to embrace the YR world in its entirety, and another portion of fandom that would like to lean into a focus on Wilmon. And there’s probably people all across a spectrum there, because nothing is a strict binary. All are valid approaches! I don’t think we all need to be best friends, but I do think we need to figure out how to coexist and assume positive intent in each other’s approaches to the work. Does anyone have ideas about that? Are there hashtags we could be using a little more carefully? I don’t have answers yet, but it is something I’m thinking about.