Cream Puff, Soufflé And Quiche

Sup, itsya boy Dylan. 

In light of recent douchebaggery I’ve decided that I have had enough of the rival shipping that goes on in the SvtFoE fandom. Pretty much every fandom has its duds, but its at the point where I feel that if Star or Marco could see how some people are acting, they wouldn’t touch those ‘fans’ with a 50 foot pole. I can’t change how other people behave, but I think all of us are a little guilty of buying into the ‘them vs us’ mentality and I for one don’t want to participate in it anymore. Its not enough for me to just keep ignoring it. So, I’ve decided that from my position as a lowly trans headcanon Tomco shipper, I’m going to use what little viewership I have to promote different artists and writers from every corner of the fractured SvtFoE fandom. 

The rules I am setting for myself are as follows:

1. I will promote creators who have posted within the last month at the very least

2. I will not prioritise creators who share my headcanons over creators who don’t.  

3. I will include every ship I can find, and promote creators who make an abundance of content for each specific ship.   

4. I will not promote any creators who have, within the past year, harassed or bullied another creator regardless of apology. 

5. I will promote creators of any skill level, preferring to select them based on their enthusiasm for their work and love for the show.

6. I will not include ships that encourage pedophilia, incest, or canonical abuse

Starco:

@celestebutterfly is actually the main inspiration for this list. While I was perusing the Starco tag to see what This Discourse was all about, I came across this adorable little comic can can be seen here. Upon looking the artist up to see what their deal was I found that they’re actually pretty new to the fandom. Welcome, Larimarinne! Even though they dont have a lot of work up at the moment, pretty much every single piece of art uploaded to the Celeste Butterfly blog is absolutely adorable. I mean…

look at this.

If you’re a fan of Starco or heckin’ adorable Starco babies, go ahead and check them out!

Tomco:

@tomco-headcannons was one of the very first tomco creators who I reached out to in the fandom, and is the creator of a fanbaby I use in my own canon, Annie:

Though they do reblog a lot of tomco art, they are primarily a fanfiction and drabble writer. And jeebers, they are commited to tomco. I think they write more random one off prompts in one week then I have in my entire life. If you are not a fan of tomco, Tomco-Headcanons has a diverse collection of AUs, multiships, and drabbles that they have written just through sheer creative force. I don’t know if they will ever stop writing on the blog, but if they do I can only imagine it is to pursue a professional writing career. They are a rare talent and a blessing on the fandom. 

Tomstar:

The obvious choice for this one would to be Starfan18, seeing as how she was the center of discourse as of late. However, the priority of this list is to find and promote amazing artists within the fandom I would have not come across otherwise. So with that said:

 @starry-winds has my favourite next generation baby thus far. Her linart resembles that of the show, but her usage of colours is subtle enough to make her content her own thing. I’m a huge fan of Venus’ goth style, as I’m always a fan of steampunky lolita, and am excited for what that aesthetic can bring to the AU they’ve created. Like Celeste they seem to be relatively new in terms of their sideblog, but I still suggest checking them out just to keep tabs on where the AU is going, or to join the open Tomstar discord they promo’d in their blog.

Janstar:

@janstar-for-the-soul is a prompt writer in the same vein as Tomco-Headcanons, and seem to have collaborated with them at least once. I’m actually stretching the rules with this one, as they have not seemed to properly posted in some time, but reading through the work they have submitted was such a great time I cant not include them here. Whatever you’re currently up to, I can’t wait to see what you write next! 

Jantom:

I’ll admit, this one was hard for me. Out of all the ships, I think I have the most predisposed prejudice towards Jantom shippers due to the abundance of Starco shippers who seem to just half-assedly stick these two together without a second thought. 

However, @thedoodlingnoodle makes an excellent case for them, and depict Janna in a way I can actually find myself enjoying. Not to mention this image of their oc cracks me tf up:

There isnt really all too much more I can add about this artist, because honestly just the sheer fact of making me ship Jantom is such a huge achievement that I’m actually kinda stunned as I write this. All else I can think to say is where is the rest of that Greatest Showman AU give it to me!

Tomkie:

something about thew way @chibicmps draws Tom makes me very, very happy. They seem to really care about who the supporting characters end up with beyond whose matchup would make a good love interest for their starco child. While subtle, Chibi has obviously put some thought into Tom and Jackie’s relationship, and I’ll admit that they’ve seriously won me over here. I love the way they mix Tom’s hot n’ spikey look with the more mellow Jackie style, eventually meeting halfway with this mellow socialite aesthetic as adults.

she’s beauty she’s grace she’ll eat your face

BAM!

I’m out of ideas! XD

LOOOK ATT THIIIIS!!!!

LOOOOK ATTT THIIIISS!!!!

80

*O*

OH MY GOOD!!!!!

ThAT’S IT!!!!

Hitting my knee

Traditional style (Sorry the picture quality is really bad) but here is my (super short) update!!

my favourite thing, artists of tumblr untiting to create a comic about high school notes gay love story

MORE PLEASE!

no.

Please oh PLEEEEEEEASE

Here’s some considerations for the tiny little details that can add a lot to a character. Figuring out these mannerisms can do a lot for conveying character traits through their normal actions rather than just their thoughts, dialogue, etc.

How’s their posture? There are more options than just sitting up straight or slouching a lot. What’s their most comfortable sitting position? Do they have a consistent posture or does it change depending on situation / present company? 

How’s their etiquette? Do they hold the door for people behind them? How do they handle handshakes and other kinds of typical contact? Does their language change or become more formal when speaking to strangers? To their elders? To their superiors? 

In a crowded space, do they get out of people’s way, or do people get out of THEIR way? 

How do they point something out? Pointing their finger? Nodding their head? A flippant wave of the hand?

What are their comfort gestures or self-touch gestures? Common comfort gestures include rubbing the back of the neck or gripping their own arms. Can they suppress these gestures or do they do them often?

Also consider the character’s common reactions to common emotions. Do they whoop when they’re excited? Do they tremble when angry? 

What parts of the body are the most expressive? Do they shuffle and stomp their feet a lot when agitated or excited? Are they a hand talker? Do they have an impressive range of motion with their eyebrows?

How do they sound? Do their car keys jingle as they walk? Do they drag their feet? Do their heels clack resoundingly on hard floors? Do they breathe loudly? Do they fidget in ways that make a lot of noise?

How do they handle eye contact?

Any behaviors they reserve for moments when they’re alone? (Or possibly among family/friends that don’t care?) Do they pick their nose? Do they bite their toenails? Do they sniff their armpits? Or do they not care if people see behavior like this?

Apart from comfort gestures, what else do they do to comfort themselves in trying times? What’s their go-to self care? What’s their comfort food? Where’s their safe space?

Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers

As described by Selnick’s article:

In the conclusion for now, some things I’d really recommend doing if you’re seriously considering making a webcomic (or really a comic in general). Some of these don’t really apply to strips or gag-a-day type of comics, but I’m not talking about those here.

1. Write down ideas\sketch stuff, LEGIBLY. “I’m gonna remember it later” NEVER works. And if you scribble it somewhere on a piece of paper, you’d better scan it or retype in one doc later, because tiny notes always get lost among other doodles in my skethbooks.

(i know it’s hard to keep everything clean and organized, but this mess is just not productive)

If your project is a collaboration, save your conversations. If you’re working alone, make a blog for your ramblings. You have no clue what tears of relief I cry when I open that blog and rememeber I don’t have to painstakingly look through my heaps of sketchbooks and folders for a tiny idea I’m not even sure I wrote down a few months ago.

2. Inspiration folders, or even better, inspo blog with tags also help with collecting and remembering ideas. Color schemes, landscapes, style inspirations, atmospheric stuff, maybe some photo references, all those neat things.

3. Basic tier: character design sheets. Top tier: common poses, expressions. God tier: outfits they wear throughout the comic. Holy cow tier: turnaround sheets for all those outfits.

(I’d die trying to find good pages for references without these)

4. If you haven’t finished detailing the plot, don’t even think about moving on to drawing the comic. You’re gonna regret it when you come up with a really cool plot element that can’t be incorporated anymore because you’ve already drawn all the parts you could’ve tweaked.

5. Don’t just define the plot, make a script. Writing down the lines and the brief description of the actions serves me fine:

(notice that I approximately divided the pages & the text that’d go to each panel on a page)

6. Hard mode: make thumbnails for all the pages, if possible. At least whenever a new chapter starts. 

7. If your story involves some convoluted chronology shenanigans, you’d better write down the events of your timeline in the chronological order.

8. Backgrounds. You can’t avoid them, bro. Like half of the comics are backgrounds, especially if your story involves a lot of adventuring and looking around. I know it hurts, but you’ll have to become friends with them. Read some tutorials, practice on photos, go out and sketch some streets, use 3d programs (like Google Sketch) to understand the perspective, use sites like houseplans to visualize your buildings better, I don’t know. Just be prepared for their imminent evil.  

9. If you’re drawing digitally, pick a brush size for the lines and stick with it. You don’t want your lines and detail levels to look all wonky and inconsistent in different panels. And I don’t mean the cool stylistic varying lines, I mean this:

Also, things on the background should have thinner and/or lighter lines to avoid distraction. Usually less details too, unless you’re making a busy background with a simple foreground to help it pop out. Or wanna draw the attention to an object on the bg.

10. Readable fonts. Even if you chose to ignore people with poor sight or dyslexia, the majority of your readers aren’t gonna be excited about struggling to decypher this:

Also, as much as I love my black speech bubbles, colorful text on black still kinda hurts the eyes. I wouldn’t recommend doing that for all the characters. Black speech bubbles are usually used for creepy, inhuman voices. And yes, having a colorful outline in this case helps.

11. Probably newsflash, but did you know that panels have their place, order and functions? They do! My favourite thing ever is how I used panels when I was like 12:

(comics ain’t rocket science, but this one is)

The composition of the panels and word balloons always serve for a better reading experience. They guide your eyes over the page, so that you never feel lost or confused. The images in the comic equal frames in a movie, so it’s pretty damn important in what order you look at things and how quickly you can understand what’s going on!

(Eric Shanower & Scottie Young’s Wizard of Oz)

12. One update a week is fine for testing waters. Don’t overestimate yourself, especially if you have a pretty busy life outside it. A stable comic that updates slowly, but regularly is better than an unpredictable erratic one. You can always pick up the pace later, if you feel confident enough.

13. Try to always have a buffer - a couple of pages in reserve. If you’re making the pages much faster than you’re updating, this shouldn’t be a problem. But if those paces are equally the same, it’s goddamn HARD. But on the other hand, if something happens and you skip an update, those come in handy.

Robin: wHY

Cute boyfriends uvu ~