rnbwtrout

[rnbwtrout]

It's very funny having a STEM degree and ignoring it entirely to do something else because it's like. Yeah I'm a full time anime convention fan artist now. What did I go to school for? Uh. Crop and soil science. Yeah I did a study on soybean maturity groups and wrote a 15 page essay on citrus greening disease. I worked in a peanut fungal disease lab and on an organic citrus farm. I am using this knowledge to sell images of shirtless Satoru Gojo.

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Admittedly I feel like a bit of clown trying to write a story. I'm not very attached to fiction, I don't think. Fiction that I've enjoyed doesn't seem to impact me like it does others I know. I'm not great at breaking down others' stories. My roommate keeps asking me very pointed writing questions about my story such as my specific inspirations, or intended genre, or intended audience, or intended themes, or specific tropes. And I usually don't have answers. At least not easily explainable ones. Obviously I get inspiration from other stories but I couldn't tell you specifically. It psyches me out a bit because I'm mostly making something I think is fun to make, and putting it into any kind of box makes me freeze up and unable to continue working on it. Stories take on a life of their own once they're in the minds of someone else, so I feel like I shouldn't worry about it because I can't begin to understand how someone else may understand it. So I guess I focus on what aspects I want to include that mean something to me.

I want trans main characters whose story isn't centered on their transness. I want characters haunted by guilt, shame, and PTSD who heal in the arms of others. I want a story filled with the abnormal, where the mundane things have the most impact. I want to do it in a manga style, because I'm a visual artist first and foremost and it's the medium I enjoy the most. I want to draw action scenes and horrors and big emotions. I want them to have friendships and communities that carry them. I want to make characters who at the end of the day are normal everyday people. I want them in situations that feel overwhelmingly out of control and make them feel helpless, and to still find a way even if it's not perfect. I want silly fun shit like vampires, werewolves, and robotic limbs. I want characters with unabashed sex lives because I'm so fucking sick of the pearl clutching purity culture over it. I want my trans characters to have different feelings about their gender and it to be acknowledged that it's okay. You know? You know??

[rnbwtrout]

"Make it exist, then make it good"

"If you write for everyone you write for no one"

"Artists create their audience"

I say over and over slamming my head into my WIP

[rnbwtrout]

daily reminders

no human being is 100% happy 100% of the time

being a person is extraordinarily difficult even in the best of times

this is not the best of times

someone is grateful you exist (don't argue, it's true)

a bad day does not predict a bad existence

it's gonna be okay

[rnbwtrout]

About this blog!

Hey y'all! I'm Fish and I'm a self taught artist currently working on a manga-style graphic novel called Best Savored After Dusk. This will be a self published/posted work that I will make a website for once chapter 1 is complete. I am aiming to have chapter 1 completed January 2026!

On this page I will share updates of my progress, miscellaneous art, extras, and more. Asks are welcome!

I don't have much art up yet, but I have a practice comic posted, as well as a couple character sheets 🙏 I also have more thorough character descriptions on my Art Fight page at ~rnbwtrout_fish

Early plot synopsis:

Aaliyah is asked to cover the night shift at the coffee shop she works at, Bloody Good Coffee. She thought the night shift was just for cleaning and preparing the store for the next day; But, to her surprise, the coffee shop is open as normal during the night. There are no posted hours for the night shift.

Things on the night shift feel... strange. Everything just feels a little off, and she can't shake the feeling that she's being haunted. As if in an instant, she begins seeing monsters and creatures everywhere. Next thing she knows, her weird boss is claiming to be a vampire. But he's probably just got strange teeth, there's no way he's actually a vampire. That would be ridiculous.

And if he is a vampire, what a stupid name for the coffee shop.

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the worst part of "you'll understand when you're older" is that you really do understand when you're older

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I'm planning to do Art Fight this year!

I would love to sketch some of your OCs 👁️👁️ My username is rnbwtrout_fish . I have posted my OCs from the manga/graphic novel I'm working on @bestsavoredafterdusk

[rnbwtrout]

It’s funny how sacabambaspis is like the funniest looking animal in every hypothetical except for that one picture that makes me feel like I’m about to be killed

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Art Critic: the skull in the corner is artfully placed on the periphery of vision to symbolise the omnipresence of death, important thematically to the artist’s conception of life and mortality.

Actual Artist: aw shit, I got all this negative space, guess I’ll stick a skull there that looks pretty rad.

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Stop just asking "is it normal?" and start asking "is it harming anyone?" Lots of harmful things are normalized in this society and lots of things considered weird or rare are completely harmless. Whether something is considered normal or common shouldn't be the deciding factor in whether it's okay

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.............My local fine arts gallery followed my Instagram right when I had posted a joke on my story about being a foot fetish artist and a painting reel of the thicc Omni Man meme. Ah, I will be known as a clown I see.

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Art improvement really is about finding a balance in experimentation and studies. I see a lot of artists who go really hard at studies and improvement, but don't take the time to experiment and apply what they've learned often enough. It's kind of like how people say, "the right book will find you at the right time" about reading. I think art studies are that way. You can't just cram a bunch of different studies at once because it diminishes the impact of each study; Just like reading a bunch of books constantly back to back can maybe dull the experience of the book at times. If you completely loathe a study you're probably not ready for it (either in interest or skill level). Art studies NEED to matter to you and your art, if it's not enjoyable to do then it'll be harder to get something out of it. At the same time, if you never do art studies, you probably have an idea of your strong and weak points, but your weak points will remain weak points.

For instance, for the last two weeks I've been doing a lot of OC drawings without reference. This really ended up highlighting some of my consistent weak points in figure and character drawing; I noticed I kept struggling with clothing wrinkles, legs below the knees (calves, ankles, feet), and shoes. I also burnt myself out on my personal project tbh. So I switched gears to do some focused studies on calves, ankles, and feet. And it's just... Clicking. And I know that if I had tried to just grind out this same study a couple months ago, I probably wouldn't have gotten much out of it because I wouldn't have seen why I needed it and why it was important for my art. From legs and feet I plan to move onto shoes and pants. And then probably go back to making paintings or character art, applying the new things I just learned. I've done this cycle a few times with different areas and I've seen pretty much constant improvement in my art.

[rnbwtrout]

(These are the more common ones i can name off the top of my head, just curious)

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kill the imposter syndrome in your head because not only is there someone out there doing it worse than you, they’re also using chat gpt to do it

[rnbwtrout]

[gripping the sink] perfectionism does not help me avoid embarrassment or shame. perfectionism is in itself a form of shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame

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if you can't handle me at my 'chat am i cooked', you don't deserve me at my 'we are so back'

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some men are made to suffer