Some jerk on the Internet can draw

↑ A thumbnail of a panel for my non-series of Starfire/Red X comics I never mean to continue but seem to do anyway. I’m posting this super quick thing to get it out of my system (too busy right now), but there’s a rough script done for this (non-)installment so I’ll remember it.

There’s bonus stuff and commentary on the tag itself, but here’s the main (non) continuity:

If there are missing parts, check out this post on Patreon (free to read). A lot was deleted with the tumblr purge so lots of nudity was removed.

Order of events: 

The Lesson (Comic)

Can’t Sleep Love (Comic)

Must Be Dreaming (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

Lighting (Comic)

I Like You (Comic; made after/inspired by Special Delivery but takes place before it.) [NSFW]

Special Delivery - A drabble written by Kryallaorchid, inspired by this post’s pic/upcoming comic! 8)

The Date (Pic)

Earthquake (Comic)

Need (Comic) [NSFW] Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

Give Me Fever (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

New Year’s Kiss (Comic)

Laundry (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

Stay (Pic) Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

Dime Que No - Written by encontrasuya

His T-Shirt - Starfire sketches from encontrasuya‘s Dime Que No Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

The Death of Him - A shot of Starfire from encontrasuya‘s Dime Que No  [NSFW] Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

Sleep (Comic)

I Love You (Comic) [NSFW] Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

I’ll See You (Comic)

It Was So Obvious, page 1 (Comic - cowritten by pg-chan)

Will He (Comic)

A Moment With You (Pic)

You Are Damaged! (Comic - cowritten by PG-chan)

Throwing Words Back (Comic)

Women Like You (Comic)

X = 8===> !!! (Comic/pic only)

X = 8===>!!! (Story and pic)

No Gloves (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

Our Ship (Comic)

Costumes, 10 years later (Pic)

(or if you’re curious) Order of posting: 

The Lesson (Comic)

Must Be Dreaming (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

A Moment With You (Pic)

You Are Damaged! (Comic - cowritten by PG-chan)

Lighting (Comic)

Special Delivery - A drabble written by Kryallaorchid, inspired by this pic/upcoming comic! 8)

I Like You (Comic; made after/inspired by Special Delivery but takes place before it.) [NSFW]

Laundry (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

The Date (Pic)

No Gloves (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

Earthquake (Comic)

Dime Que No - Written by encontrasuya

His T-Shirt - Starfire sketches from encontrasuya‘s Dime Que No Deleted from tumblr Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

The Death of Him - A shot of Starfire from encontrasuya's Dime Que No  [NSFW] Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

Our Ship (Comic)

Women Like You (Comic)

New Year’s Kiss (Comic)

Give Me Fever (Comic) [NSFW-ish?]

Sleep (Comic)

X = 8===> !!! (Comic/pic only)

I Love You (Comic) [NSFW] Deleted from tumblr; Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

Stay (Pic) Deleted from tumblr Compiled in PDF on Patreon↗️

Costumes, 10 years later (Pic)

X = 8===>!!! (Story and pic)

Need (Comic) [NSFW]

It Was So Obvious, page 1 (Comic - Cowritten by pg-chan)

Throwing Words Back (Comic) Post-Tumblr Purge:

I’ll See You (Comic)

Can’t Sleep Love (Comic)

“but it’s not canon” THEY ARE ALREADY FICTION. canon or not. they are a fragment of imagination forged by their canon creators, meaning YOU can create your own art about them too.

canon = art made by canon creators, they created it, it’s out there, it exists, it’s valid.

hi! sorry, real quick:

grab a piece of paper and fold it in half like a book

write "im indifferent to zines" on the cover

write "i've never been able to buy one" on the first page

write "and i'll never be in one" on the second page

write "just want to be a hater today" on the back

the first zine idea i found was in a book i checked out from the library (id never remember what it was. it was about cartooning i think and had a section about chibi style lol) that had a little section on taking one sheet of paper, marking it into eighths, cutting a line in the center of the page and folding it over for a quick eight pages. like this

And then I thought, hey I have a piece of paper by my desk I should at least follow that diagram and fold it, that way I’m halfway there even if it’s blank and sits on my desk for months, and then 5 minutes later I had this:

Now I’m just holding this little thing I’ve made in my hands and I love it so much

I aready said this isn't a semantic thing, but you if you really want to go there: 'zine' is a shortening of fanzine or magazine and the concept of a 'fanzine' itself is directly derived from a style of independently published magazine that has roots at least as far back as the Harlem Renaissance and arguably the political pamphleteering of the french and american revolutions. but the actual point I was making is that the entire ethos of zine making originates in an effort to broaden access to publication, and we are losing that.

am I saying nobody ever slapped a $20 cover price on a zine before the 2020s? no! am I saying no influential underground publication has ever made the crossing into fully fledged magazine? no! am I saying I will come to your house and punch your teeth in personally if you use the word zine in a way I find objectionable? no! I'm saying the trajectory of commercialisation, professionalisation and lost knowledge is not only stripping foundational meaning from the form but directly harms the viability of low-overhead zine production. just look through the notes of this post for dozens of people saying they'd never heard of the homemade zine before this post, that they'd been burned by high production 'zine' projects and soured on the whole concept as a result. no equivocation: this shit is killing the medium.

but hey, maybe the $15 zine is the norm and I'm just pearl clutching because I don't like genshin impact or whatever. let's look at the cover prices of some historically important zines at launch:

oh sorry, my bad, these aren't 'fanzines' let's try again

mm but of course the very first fanzines ever published would be cheap and amateur, the form was still being figured out. what about the one everyone on tumblr loves to call the birth of fandom:

well fine, but what about zines that deal with serious social issues? that involve research, outreach, even risk on the part of the creators?

believe it or not (or refuse to believe it) but the history of zines is not the history of bag-getters. accessibility has always been the lifeblood of the form, and that includes financial accessibility.

as many of you know, I have a Patreon where I post exclusive fics not posted on Tumblr. Since creating my Patreon in 2021, I have only ever had one tier. Now I have two! The original Official Patron tier is now Official Patron - Basic. This is still only $5.00 a month, and you will still have exclusive access to fics, nothing is changing for this tier.

The new tier is the Official Patron - Premium, which will be $8.00. I'm running a 25% off deal between now and the end of January where the tier will only be $6.00 for your first month! The discount code is FB1B6

What do you get with the Premium tier?

Okay, so sometimes I get writer's block. I want to be producing what you all want to read. At this tier, you can now request specific fics you want written by me!

Only people in this tier will be able to read the requested fics. Anyone with the Basic Tier will not have access to these.

**Disclaimers:

Being older now and having an art job it’s…kind of essential. 

So: a quick primer for those of you who are like ‘ok but how do i actually go about doing this warmup thing.’ 

1) you may be tempted to do ‘a warmup drawing’ which is just a drawing that will take longer than it needed to and probably be frustrating and kind of bad because you didn’t warm up first. It’s tempting but always a trick your brain is playing on you! Do not trust! 

2) warmups will vary based on what feels good to you/what task you’re about to do/what motor skills you want to practice. That being said, some good standbys:

a) circles. Just a whole page of circles on whatever drawing surface you’re going to be using, whether that’s your tablet or your sketchbook or a drawing pad on an easel. For these circles you should make sure that you’re drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist. In fact, you want to be drawing from your shoulder rather than your wrist most of the time! forever! your wrist is delicate please preserve it! 

In order to ensure that you’re drawing from your shoulder, when you’re holding your pencil or whatever drawing tool you’re using, the only part of your hand that should be touching the drawing surface is part of the last two fingers–some people prefer the finger tips, but I tend to favor the first knuckles. Either way, the fingers should really be ghosting over the surface, providing guidance rather than support. 

I usually start with big circles and then go to smaller circles and lines of ellipses, and then try to fit circles and ellipses inside other shapes i’ve already drawn as a precision exercise, but i don’t do that unless i’m feeling loose

b) spirals! i don’t always do spirals, but if i’m stiff and the circles just aren’t cutting it, spirals are a good fall back. I start from the center and work outward, going both clockwise and counterclockwise until i feel comfortable with the whole range of motion. Some people really care about getting perfect spirals but for me it’s all about making sure i’m comfortable with how i’m moving so who really even cares about how the spirals look. Not me! 

c) lines! straight lines! in parallel! i do a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. These are often more from the elbow than the shoulder, especially if I’m working on a smaller surface. For this exercise, I recommend holding the drawing tool perpendicular with the surface

d) connect the dots. This is a precision and accuracy exercise and takes two forms. The first is to draw two dots and then draw a straight line between them. The second is to draw three dots and draw the curve that connects them. This sounds a lot simpler than it is in practice. Take time to ghost over the line you plan to draw before actually committing to your line. (I don’t always remember where I picked up my warm up exercises, but I’m pretty sure I got this one from Scott Robertson. His how to draw and how to render books are very technical but also accessible and worth checking out)

e) cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. These help get your brain into a more volumetric space. I draw multiples of each, rotating the forms around, and I’ll often take the time to do some rough shading on at least a few of them

f) spidermans! This one is really good if you’re going to be storyboarding or working on dynamic poses. Just fill a page full of spidermans doing all sorts of acrobatics. 

g) beans. I don’t do beans too much anymore, but I know a lot of people like it so I’m mentioning it here. Fill an area with different size bean shapes without lifting your pencil off the paper. 

h) short medium and long line repetition. draw a short, medium, and long line on your page, and then draw directly on top of them 8 to 12 times, doing your best to exactly trace what you’ve already drawing. Repeat with a wavy line. I’m bad at this one, which means I probably need to do it more. 

And there are lots more options too! Hit up youtube to see what other people recommend, put together your own go-to list, mix it up when you’re getting bored, etc. 

This is a long list, I know, but I usually don’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes to warm up, and I can warm up one handed while I’m drinking coffee, so, multitasking hurrah. 

Sometimes I’ll advance to a precision warmup and find that I haven’t loosened up enough yet; it’s totally ok to go back to an earlier exercise! Also, all of this has the added benefit of kind of ritualistically getting you into the drawing mode so even if I’m not feeling it before I start, by the time I’ve gotten to the end I’m usually Ready For Drawin’. Brain hacks. 

https://youtu.be/NBE-RTFkXDk