astrabelleart

[astrabelleart]

PHOENIX AND FRANZISKA WITH MILES. THE LOVER AND THE SISTER.

the dynamic between two people who love a third person so much and come to understand each other because of that is so important to me. you would put them first, and so would i. you understand why we have to save them from themself. i trust you with their life, and so, that means more than if i trusted you with mine. the love doesn't have to be the same, but it's powerful enough that you understand why you're not the only satellite drawn into their orbit.

[astrabelleart]

i got so many aa drawings

[astrabelleart]

Growing an audience takes time and getting people to care about your characters can often take more time. I've done a bunch of OCs in the past but none of them really got traction until my IDWTBAMG OCs. I steadily grew my social media following for well over a decade. A lot of checking socialblade, looking at analytics and generally drawing/posting everyday. I have a whole doc available about this type of stuff.

There's no particular shortcut other than happening to go viral or getting really lucky. But I will say "branding" or carving out a niche for yourself over time helps. Although I've been in a number of different fandoms over the past 15 years I've been on the internet, the kind of art I do has been pretty consistent. Lots of shorter, light hearted comics or vignettes highlighting relationships (be them romantic, platonic or familial) and people started enjoying my work for my writing style more so than just what fandom I was creating for.

Finding your community, creating stuff that aligns with those communities and engaging with others is huge. A lot of my work prior to IDWTBAMG centered queer people (specifically sapphics), Black and Asian folks and stylistically is very anime/modern western cartoon inspired. It's what became known for in fandom spaces and what people were following me for. So when I finally did make IDWTBAMG, a concept with anime influences, in a western cartoon style, with two Black, sapphic leads, it just fit right into what I was already doing. Like if you grew your following from doing cute, slice of life stuff, then suddenly dropped a psychological horror comic, chances are it's not gonna grab a large part of your audience. Might bring some new folks in, but you're ultimately kinda starting over and pivoting (that's why rebrands are hard to pull off). This may not be the best example but hopefully you get what I mean. Appeal to the communities you've fostered!

I hate using corporate speak for art but if you ARE trying sell your ideas to people and get your work out there, you do kinda have to learn how to market yourself and your art to some extent. Get in the head of a marketing agent or a brand manager. What's popular right now? How can I use that to my advantage? What times should I be posting my artwork to get the most eyes on this? Who is my target audience and how do I effectively appeal to them while staying true to my own work? Stuff like that. Genuinely, studying how social media managers operate as well as just observing how businesses market their products helped me a lot. "Okay I'm making this animatic, but it won't come out for the next four months. How do I keep people interested and hyped for that amount of time leading up to the pilot's release? I'll keep doing comics here and there so people connect with the characters by the time the pilot comes out. Once I get he VAs recorded, I'll make posts to get people hyped for the casting. I'll upload snippets and behind the scenes stuff to give people a taste of what's to come. I'll release during Black History Month since this is a Black led project with Black characters. I'll have a specific upload time at peak hours to get a good amount of people watching for the premiere and to give the pilot a good running start." This was all stuff I was taking into consideration and planning for.

Then generally, I think people connect to characters more than anything. You can have a cool concept and fun world building ideas but if your execution is bad and your characters aren't compelling, what's the point, y'know? IDWTBAMG isn't a particularly novel concept imo, but I think its strengths lie in the characters and how they interact. The concept is just a tool to give the character dynamics and relationships legs to stand on. So few of the comics I've done with these guys have to do with their lore, it's just small interactions of the girls in class, at a convenience store or just talking to each other in a void. Even though it's simple, that's often the kind of thing people connect with.

Then there's just the technical aspect of having appealing drawing! Getting better at your craft, if nothing else, is good for catching eyes and helping with your execution of your project. While it's not always necessary, I think it helps a lot. I know there's a lot of people who follow me just because they personally like my art style and character design.

Not sure how helpful this actually is LOL. It really does just kinda take time. We all have to start somewhere. I was a "small artist" too at one point. It was years of trial and error, mental breakdowns, finding my own artistic voice and posting artwork almost daily for like 5 years straight. I do think that's why IDWTBAMG ended up being so special to me. It really does feel like a culmination of everything I've learned and all that hard work up to this point and people can kinda feel that.

[astrabelleart]

The fact that Oct. 20th is Kazumaji meeting day AND Unnecessary Feelings day...

Should October 20th be added to pride month?

[astrabelleart]

THIS IS CONSUMING MY SOULD ZVVS W.W NE E MY TWO HYPERFIXSTIONS I mIGHT COLLAPES. /vPOS

like a turnabout. or something. is this thing on.

[astrabelleart]

KAZUMAJI AND NARUMITSU SIDE BY SIDE LOVE WINS

All of my retro yaoi prints in one place

It's really cool to see them all together. I will be selling these at the upcoming Brisbane Supanova!

[astrabelleart]

ZEZÉ!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

zé maria!!! tibummm tibuummm lalalalalalaa tibummm tibummmm

[astrabelleart]

meanwhile ace attorney fans after 9 years

[astrabelleart]

I SQUEALED LOUDLY I HAVE TEARS IN MY EYES I LOVE HIM SO MUCH THIS IS MAKING ME SO HAPPY I AM HAPPY SQUEAKING I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS TYSM OP I WAS HAVING SUCH A SHITTY DAY AND IM BOTH IN EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN BUT THIS IS MAKING ME GENUINELY SMILE SO MUCH UYGYGUYGEIAJQEN8EQABU871338 this made my day i am so fuckinsge serious this i swonderful lvoely gorvgeous marvelpus . my boi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111 <333333333333333

☀️🌻✨

[astrabelleart]

FINALLY SOME ACE ATTORNEY 2012 FANART I FUCKICN LOCCE RHIS RHIS IS BEAUTIFUL. NICK IS SO STUPID IN THIS MOVIE HIROKI NARIMIYA IS MY FAVORITE LIVE ACTION ADAPTATION OF HIM!!!! MY STUPID LAWYER BOY!!!!! <333

Ace attorney (2012) screenshot redraws

[astrabelleart]

DUDE WHAT THE ACRUAL FUCK I JUST HAD A REALLY LONG DRJAVU OVER THIS FANART LILE IT WAS LIKE A 10 SECONDS LONG DEJAVU ABOUT ME BROWSING TUMBLR AND SEEING THIS FAMART AND THINKING ABOUT DEJAVU >>INSIDE MY FUCKING DEJAVU<< AND THIS GAME TALKS ABOUT FUCKING DEKAVU THIS IS AVTUALLY CRAZY LIKE sorry op for going absolutely bonkers on your fanart rbs but THIS WAS AN INSANE EXPERIENCE TO HAVE OK.

oh man is that a game about grief and letting go- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

And those were the final words of one foxarmpit before playing hit game until then and making it through Act 1 and a part of Act 2 so far I think

[astrabelleart]

he's so pretty when he's done with this shit 🥺🥺🥺🥺♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Bro is tired

[astrabelleart]

saving this for later heheheheheheh >:)))))))

Take this as an excuse to just draw your favourite characters thrown in a room together, it doesn't need to make sense or look good as long as you have fun drawing it!

And if you do and feel like sharing please reblog with it or tag me in the post I'd love to see what y'all come up with :D

[astrabelleart]

[astrabelleart]

i am in love. did i ever tell you guys how in love i am with him. because i am. i am deeply in love with this stupid fictional man. i love him deeply. i am in love.

I had a vision

[astrabelleart]

now that tumblr has colored text you can highlight important things like youre in an ace attorney game

[astrabelleart]

its very important in ace attorney that every lawyer has their funny little girl, and i hope you all understand the phoenix was mia's funny little girl