Jabberwick

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Lúthien / Jabberwick he/they 🔸 Autistic 🔸 30's

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Queer illustrator, animator and creature appreciator! I write and draw about a place called Looming. You can expect scrapbooks, study pages, tutorials, paper art and very gay magical critters.

Hey! Always happy to talk about it! Popping it under the cut (:

Recieving a lot of objectum hate recently! Being objectum is something I have extremely extremely thick skin about. More than anything, I'm very happy and willing to be an attention sink for clowns to waste their energy barking at. It delights me how upset you are by something just so absolutely banal and insignificant. Like oh my god who fucking cares!

Ye Olde Nicholas Kole

My biggest self-criticism is how I responded to someone worrying at me in the past. My OCD got extremely triggered and I just sort of freaked out. They had a much larger audience size and it scared me so, so much. I thought that the more evidence I could provide, the better. This wasn't the case and ended up making me look unhinged and defensive and rambly, which was further leveraged, which triggered my OCD that much more.

Having experience fumbling how I handled it, I feel like I can provide some thoughts on what I'd do different.

Provided they are reaching out in good faith, empathy would be the best way to lead your response. If it is someone you have been directly copying, it's good to remember that people have different boundaries and ideas of what copying is, your version might be different to theirs. Take a moment to consider if there is truth to what they are saying. If there is, that's okay! You get to learn and move forward. Ask what made them reach out, what line was crossed where, and if it feels like a reasonable observation, take that criticism on and see what you can do differently.

If it is someone you have not been copying, the only thing you can really do is be honest, provide some evidence if it is available and maybe suggest that you block each other to give them peace of mind. If they are still mad, you can only really continue to not reference their work.

I wish I had been more understanding in my own circumstance, but assumed that because I wasn't copying or referencing their work, there was nothing for me to be understanding about. I was wrong! The concern can be understandable even if it is built on incorrect assumptions, and I think it is important to make sure people feel listened to.

In the end, not everyone will handle it well. Some folks will be nasty, others will be reassured. It is luck of the draw and the only thing you can do is be kind, honest, humble and do your best to diffuse rather than escalate.

I feel for you. I think a lot of people experience some degree of uncertainty about taking direct inspiration from other people. I think the answer to this is twofold.

The first part is that I go to a lot of effort to vary my references, and I tend to look at historical references more than modern artists, unless the artist is extremely renowned: mike mignola for example. Even then, I'm always up front if I closely reference his or another's art. I do my best to only reference one or two minor things from modern artists, and I tend to favour understanding an artist's inspirations rather than an artist's direct work. That way I can look at these sources as well and get a deeper understanding of someone's choice, and iterate on them in my own way.

The second part is that I have to learn to accept that I can't control how anyone feels. That's where the fear and ocd stems from. So long as I am being sincere, honest, and am making a real effort to be diverse in my references and unique in my work. I've been accused of copying by one artist while very openly directly referencing a separate artist. You just have to take it in stride, learn from the experiences and your mistakes, and move on.

I've seen fear of copying and fear of being copied just totally consume people. I've seen almost entirely unknown artists get bitter because they genuinely believe everyone started using default software brushes because they use that brush. I've seen 10 separate people certain they were the one who invented object heads. I've seen people so afraid of taking inspiration that they won't even look at photo reference, and it shows. I don't want to become any version of these people.

Broadly, yes.

While he is long lived, whiskered memory is very human. Remembering his human life would be akin to trying to remember your 2 year old life.

He doesn't recall what sex he was born, nor what gender he identified as while human. He has a magical non-human body and is a magical non-human sex.

He uses any pronouns, wears a magical binder that keeps his human shape stable but that also has top surgery scar patterns on it. He adores clothing of all expressions. Wincer calls him her wife, merlin calls him his husband. Different creatures know him by different names with different gender ideas attached to them.

love your work btw :]

While i'm like almost positive there's probably similar shapes and symbols to it irl, in my work it is of my own invention. I put together a quick notes page for you about them!

I could ramble, but the short of it is that while i have a soft spot for Ancient Magus' Bride, I see it through the same lens i see media like twilight. It is has problematic relationships and age dynamics because the main character is the same age as the target audience: teenagers.

That aside, i think it handles the 700-year-old boyfriend trope better than its peers of the same genre, but it is on very thin ice. I would like it so much more if Chise was in her mid 20s.

I really enjoyed lot of the environmental aesthetics, motifs and designs, especially around Elias and Ruth, and i think it has a very charming approach to magic and the fae. I also loved how autism coded the main cast, but especially Elias, is.

It's like. Folkfantasy. It takes place on earth in a timeline vaguely similar to the real world, but with it's own deviations, inventions, places, etc. It resembles a scramble of eras, but it is placed very roughly in the late 1800s, early 1900s.

Tech: Technology is a scramble of different eras. Early electricity exists, but is unpredictable due to how magic inteference causes blackouts and dead-zones. This unpredictability is wrongly assumed as an inherent property of electricity itself, and so its potential isn't taken all that seriously by the general public. Some small electrical appliances have hit the market but they almost all have hand-cranks built into them for when the wall sockets stop working.

Train, boat and horse are the most common forms of travel, planes are in their early stages. While some modern buildings have lightbulbs, all buildings still have fire-based light alternatives due to blackouts.

Magical Critters: Most humans don't know the whiskered exist. The whiskered have reclused from humanity as humans have become more scientifically minded. Trying to explain the mechanics of magic causes it to stop working, and so creatures made from magic are put in danger by curiosity that seeks to categorize and explain them.

Magic: Increasinly doubted cultural beliefs about magic are deeply interwoven and muddled up with magic reality, meaning as things like snakeoils and charms go out of fashion, so does the belief in the idea of magic.

Where Looming stands magically by those who practice it is also not always clear-cut. Even those who practice magic don't always know what is and isn't "functional" magic. Someone who levitates objects miraculously might also believe crystals have inherent healing powers, because it is impossible to tell what is and isn't folk-belief.

Oh good question.

Jack, merlin and wincer all have open relationships and a variety of partners that come and go, but plainly, no, they aren't a throuple! Jack and merlin are married, wincer and jack are dedicated "significant lovers" but dont consider themselves in a romantic relationship.

Wince and Merlin are as close as friends can be, but are completely non-sexual and platonic.