gckinsey - Tumblr blog

[gckinsey]

What’s next for 2019

Hi friends, and happy 2019! I know I haven’t been active here lately, so I wanted to talk about why that is & what my plans are going forward.

My webcomic

I’m kind of at a crossroads as far as where to go/what to do with my webcomic, You’re Doing It Wrong. I haven’t updated it in a long time, and I’m not sure whether I want to continue it. This is for several reasons:

My day job has become more travel intensive, which makes it hard to keep up with a regular posting schedule. And I was already struggling to balance weekly updates around my job before. I don’t make money from my comic, & the added travel at work came with better pay, so I know what the priority is there.

Over the last year, I’ve gotten much deeper into cosplay. It’s an art form I’m really passionate about, & I want to keep growing my craftsmanship skills. Splitting my already limited free time between cosplay and comics also makes it hard to post regular updates.

I feel like a long-form webcomic is a lot of work for little reward. You’re Doing It Wrong is fully outlined/scripted & I know how it ends, but even at my old weekly update pace, it would take YEARS to get to that ending & share that payoff with everyone. And that can really kill my desire to work on it.

I’ve drawn some short-form educational comics about asexuality (here and here) that have reached more readers/gotten more feedback than the entire combined archive of my webcomic got over 5 years. This makes me wonder if my time is better spent making more short-form comics in that vein than continuing with my webcomic.

This is a more personal reason, but the friendship dynamic between the main characters in my webcomic is based on an IRL one that has since ended (that person & I are no longer on speaking terms). This wasn’t a big deal at first, but as the comic’s story goes on, sometimes working on it is a painful reminder/puts me in a not-great headspace.  

Another personal reason that has less to do with comics & more to do with IRL stuff… I’ve been questioning my gender for a while & finally (officially) came out this year as genderfluid. I know that has nothing to do with whether I have time to make art, but the gender questioning/exploration process is still a significant thing that’s taken up a lot of my mental/emotional energy this year.

So… what to do with my webcomic? I hate to stop working on something I started without finishing it, especially with as much work as I put into it (231 strips!). I also hate to just abandon a story that people are following. My readership is & always has been small, but I don’t like the thought of leaving them hanging. However, I have pretty much no motivation to keep drawing it. I truly feel happier drawing shorter comics that I can actually finish & post in their entirety, or maybe even get printed for local cons. I want to make more queer education comics, since the ones I’ve done have gotten such great responses & generated such awesome discussions.

All things considered, I’m going to put You’re Doing It Wrong on an indefinite hiatus. I won’t say I’ll never finish it, but I’m not going to update it regularly, or even frequently. If/when I post new strips, it will only be as I feel like it. I honestly hate this decision and I’m sorry. But I know it’s for the best. 

What’s next

It’s hard not to see my webcomic’s indefinite hiatus as “giving up,” but instead, I want to approach this as a new beginning. I’m going to keep making short-form comics and new cosplays in 2019, and I’m excited to share all of that work with you. Just because I won’t be updating my webcomic doesn’t mean I’ll stop creating - I’ll just be creating something different!

On that note, I’d like to try to be more active here again. The only place I’m active right now is Instagram (which has been a great platform for sharing cosplay stuff & getting more involved in that community). But I want to start sharing the things I post there on my Tumblr, as well. I’m updating my profile pic to something more in line with my gender feels. So I figured a literal rebranding like this would be as good a time as any to start posting again. :)

I’ve missed being on here & I’m glad to be back. Happy new year, friends!!!

[gckinsey]

Where to find me after the purge

Hi friends! I know I’m not that active on here anymore, but I thought I’d still share my other social media in case you need to find me after December 17th:

Instagram: gckinsey

Facebook: gckinseycosplay

Twitter: gckinsey

AO3: gckinsey

DeviantArt: gckinsey

(Instagram is the only one where I’m reliably active these days, but I still maintain accounts in all the other places too.)

I’m not planning to leave Tumblr, and I’m not super worried about my blog since it’s all safe for work. However, a few of my totally innocent posts are getting flagged for “adult content” (like hamster pictures? and my freaking Winter Soldier arm tutorial??? sigh). So I’m backing everything up just in case. If anything gets deleted, I’ll post it elsewhere and let you know.

[gckinsey]

Check out the spectacular art @watery-silver made to go with my fic I’m Sorry for the @victuri-big-bang!

#CommemorativePhoto

“A commemorative photo?” he offers, since words seem to have completely failed the man staring at him. “Sure.”

“That was Yuuri Katsuki from Japan you just royally insulted,” Yakov grunts.

“Not like that loser didn’t deserve it!” Yuri pipes up.

Viktor’s mouth falls open.

“That was Yuuri Katsuki?”

This is my submission to the Victuri Big Bang 2.0. to go with the fic by @gckinsey . It’s a fun expansion to the commemorative photo scene and the banquet scene plus a lovely happy ending that inspired this piece. Go give it a read here:)

[gckinsey]

“That was Yuuri Katsuki from Japan you just royally insulted,” Yakov grunts.

“Not like that loser didn’t deserve it!” Yuri pipes up.

Viktor’s mouth falls open.

“That was Yuuri Katsuki?”

In which Viktor feels really terrible about the whole commemorative photo incident and apologizes to Yuuri in The Most ExtraTM way possible, only for Yuuri to drink too much to remember it. An expanded take on the banquet scene.

I wrote a fic for the @victuri-big-bang! 

Please check it out & give some love to my collaborator @watery-silver who created the gorgeous art for this story! :)

Also give some love to my awesome friends bighouse.cos and owlbearmedia for providing Japanese and Russian translations for some of the dialogue!

[gckinsey]

I’ve built a new arm & added an update about it to the end of this tutorial, so I thought I’d give it a reblog!

Winter Soldier: Metal Arm Tutorial

(Photos by Antler Productions)

I recently rebuilt the metal arm for my Winter Soldier cosplay and took process photos every step of the way. So here’s a tutorial showing how I did it! I wanted an arm that was cheap/non-messy to build and lightweight/flexible to wear, so I came up with a method using foam and duct tape.

Keep reading

[gckinsey]

All Might is the most precious fluff ball :)

[gckinsey]

All Might snuggled with me last night!!!! AHHH MY HEART :)

[gckinsey]

Progress pics from taming All Might! He did great with our bathtub bonding sessions & plenty of food motivation. Now I can pick up my soft fluffy boy & hold him. :)

[gckinsey]

This is my new little buddy, All Might! He’s Plus Ultra adorbs. :)

[gckinsey]

I experimented with drawing the 3 main characters from my webcomic in this very chibi-esque anime style & I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

[gckinsey]

A little while ago, I had to say goodbye to my sweet Bucky Bear. He got a cold this week, and even with meds from the vet and lots of TLC from me, he just couldn’t shake it due to his age. He was almost 2 years old, so at least that means he lived a long and full life for a hamster. I’m a complete mess right now without my best friend. But I’m happy to have so many incredible memories of all our cuddles, anime binges, and other adventures together. I’m so lucky this little squirt was part of my life. Rest in peace James Buchanan Barnes… I’m going to miss you so, so much.

[gckinsey]

A little while ago, I had to say goodbye to my sweet Bucky Bear. He got a cold this week, and even with meds from the vet and lots of TLC from me, he just couldn’t shake it due to his age. He was almost 2 years old, so at least that means he lived a long and full life for a hamster. I’m a complete mess right now without my best friend. But I’m happy to have so many incredible memories of all our cuddles, anime binges, and other adventures together. I’m so lucky this little squirt was part of my life. Rest in peace James Buchanan Barnes... I’m going to miss you so, so much.

[gckinsey]

I made a new comic for Ace Awareness Week 2017!

This one addresses some of the assumptions people have made about me because I’m ace. Hopefully this will help spread some awareness of what asexuality is and is not. :)

Here are some other ace comics I’ve made:

Cake Walk (my questioning/coming out story)

You’re Doing it Wrong (special for Ace Awareness Week 2016)

If you have any questions about ace stuff, feel free to hit up my ask box!

[gckinsey]

It’s National Coming Out Day, so I thought I’d give this comic a reblog! It tells the story of my journey of self-discovery, questioning, and coming out as demiromantic ace. :)

This is a little comic I made about the journey I went through in discovering that I’m ace and coming out. It’s drawn in the same simple style I used for my hourly comics, which is really only a step above thumbnails, but I wanted to go ahead and share it. At some point I plan to redraw it properly for my comic site and Tapastic account, and maybe even print it! 

One thing about the comic’s timeline that I wanted to address… When I first came out as ace on social media last November, I actually did come out as demisexual. But since that time, I gained a greater understanding of both myself and the ace and aro spectrums, and realized that demiromantic ace was a much more accurate fit for me. 

In the months that followed my coming out as ace on social media, I slowly began coming out to close family and friends in real life. I was worried about how the people closest to me would react, but it’s gone pretty well so far!

I made this comic to address the doubts, questions, and confusing aspects of myself that made it so hard to understand or explain how I felt before I found the ace community. I especially wanted to represent those who, like me, didn’t realize they were ace for years because they were misinformed or didn’t even know it was an option… who fall into the gray area of the ace spectrum or aren’t sure how to define their asexuality… who worry about whether they’re “ace enough” because they’re gray ace, sex favorable, or both. I hope this comic helps any fellow aces who feel like they can relate to it! :)

(And BTW… any flames from discoursers about my support for ace inclusion in the LGBTQIA+ community will be used to toast marshmallows and then deleted.) ;) 

[gckinsey]

My hamster is the world's biggest snugglebutt :)

[gckinsey]

I went on a Twitter rant about asexuality and the assumptions people make about it

(full transcript below the cut)

Transcript:

I had an incident happen a couple days ago that really got me thinking about how the world views asexuality/the ace spectrum

I was playing a card game called Quick & Dirty with my friends, and a few of them thought all my filthy answers were "ironic" since I'm ace

Which is weird, because I've always looked at it the other way - it's kind of "ironic" that I'm ace since I have such a lewd sense of humor

But in reality, a dirty mind and asexuality aren't mutually exclusive. So it's not ironic at all. And that really made me think...

Even though more people are talking/learning about asexuality, it's still not well understood. Especially all the nuances of the spectrum

Many people confuse asexuality with other things: aromanticism, celibacy, hatred of sex, a disorder, innocence... just to name a few

But in reality, "asexual" just means you fall on a spectrum of feeling little to no sexual attraction to others. That's literally it.

So why is asexuality so often confused with other concepts? And why do people make so many assumptions (most of them false) about aces?

The ace spectrum includes a diverse range of experiences. So how can anyone assume they know what a person is like just because they're ace?

I don't blame my friends - or anyone - for making these assumptions about aces. I made plenty of my own while I was still questioning.

The real problem isn't the assumptions themselves - it's the root cause, which is an appalling lack of sex education in our society

I remind myself of this whenever those assumptions get to me. (I try not to let them, but I'm only human, & sometimes they frustrate me)

More importantly, I ask myself what I can do about this problem. And I think I have an idea that will help, at least a little

I made an educational comic about discovering the ace spectrum and coming out, and it's reached a lot of people: http://gckinsey.tumblr.com/post/148694750931/this-is-a-little-comic-i-made-about-the-journey-i

And this incident with my friends has inspired me to make a comic about what asexuality is not. I want to tackle those assumptions head-on.

So really, even though I felt weird about it, I have to thank my friends for calling my dirty sense of humor + my asexuality "ironic"

I think I've been subconsciously looking for a way to address those assumptions about asexuality for a while, & this has given me the push

So I'll be making a comic about this soon - probably for release during Ace Awareness Week in October. But in the meantime...

Asexuality is NOT: -fake -hatred of sex -celibacy -innocence -a disorder -an automatic rejection -aromanticism -one size fits all #ace #psa

[gckinsey]

I was wondering how long it took you to finish your winter soldier arm. I'm trying to make one for hallowed and was wondering if I could finish on time

Hi! The first time I built the arm, it took about 2-3 weeks from when I ordered/bought the materials to when I finished assembling it. The whole costume took something like 6-8 weeks. If you go ahead and start now, you should totally be able to finish before Halloween! If you start building an arm and have any questions, feel free to message me. :)