Let's Get This Party On! Hit Me With A Laser Gun!

They're done: the Forbidden Halftone Brush Pack of your dreams.

Nine free halftone brushes for Clip Studio Paint. I will not be making another set of these so grab 'em now or never. Upload instructions are included in the folder! Thanks for your support! 😭

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

ANYWAY.

@nattosoup, @respheal and I wrote an blog post about this years ago, when Project Wonderful still existed. It has been a long time, and the landscape has changed, so please bear with me as I provide some updated information.

(See also: the archive of the FreeJeeves page. There's a wealth of information here, including some ways to make your comic website more mobile friendly.)

Please visit these resources and see if any appeal to you. They're a mix of materials that are like textbooks, as well as free courses. Some links may require signing up.

I am not affiliated with any of these websites.

1. Learn HTML + CSS

HTML and CSS are the foundation of every page. You don't need internet access to build an HTML page -- you can do it all from your computer at home. But you do need some basic knowledge to get started. If you can format a tumblr post or ever feel adventurous enough to poke at tumblr's themes, you can learn HTML.

https://www.w3schools.com/

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html

https://web.dev/learn/design

https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/2022/responsive-web-design/

https://www.theodinproject.com/paths/foundations/courses/foundations

Once you learn how to build your website, and have a place you want to upload it? You might want to learn about FTP, which is the file transfer protocol. This lets you upload files to your webhost. If you need an FTP client, Filezilla is absolutely free and works Windows, Mac, and Debian flavors of Linux. (important note: Download the Filezilla client. Don't download Filezilla server unless you know what you're doing.)

2. Where to Post your Webcomic

Here, I'm focusing on places that let you customize your layout and allow for some freedom.

In that old blog post, I mention different types of hosting. We're going to focus on "shared" hosting, which is usually fairly inexpensive on a month-to-month basis and requires almost no knowledge of the server. For a webcomic, you do not need to use AWS, buy a VPS, or rent a dedicated server. That'll be overkill for most folks. If you're at that level, you should know what you're doing.

2.1 Existing Services

Existing services can change their rules or go offline at any time with no notice to the user. Please keep this in mind.

https://comicfury.com/ - Free, Requires HTML knowledge. Has Templates that you can customize when you build your site, but also some documentation on their forum.

https://www.tumblr.com/ - Free, might require HTML knowledge. Simple Webcomic Theme: https://www.tumblr.com/theme/39018 Baidi Webcomic Theme: https://www.tumblr.com/theme/40103 If you do this, I would recommend setting up a dedicated secondary blog for your comic.

https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/ - Also free. I have no idea where the theme documentation is without having to log in, so... I'm only linking this because it exists and people still use it.

https://neocities.org/ - Free hosting? Yay! When I was a kid, we had free websites through Geocities and Angelfire, and this is much like that. Rarebit template for comics: https://rarebit.neocities.org/

2.2 Self-Hosting with a Content Management System (CMS)

I cannot recommend any webhosts right now, but I can recommend software you can use for posting webcomics, if you feel like getting into the weeds way more than basic HTML/CSS will allow.

These will require the ability to read documentation and follow instructions, as well as basic knowledge in how to upload/edit files using FTP. Your webhost will have documentation if you need access to it.

At the end of the day, a webcomic is basically a blog, so most blogging software can be modified to make it work for this purpose.

If you require technical support for these options, please visit the websites for these tools.

Also, please remember support the developers if you can. Making tools for webcomics is largely a project of love (...sometimes spite), but many are discontinued because the devs become tired, burnt out, or simply lack the energy and finances to do so. It takes a lot of spoons and energy in general to provide technical support, especially when so much knowledge has been lost.

Wordpress + Toochecke - Great for webtoon-style comics, rather than graphic novel style comics. If you don't want the theme, the Toocheke companion tool can be used for making any theme a comic theme. Requires PHP and MySQL.

Wordpress + Manga+Press - Works with some of the default themes for Wordpress. Documentation is a little sparse right now.

Grawlix - A webcomic dedicated Content Management System, now maintained by folks who want the software to continue to exist. Requires PHP and MySQL.

ComicControl. - Created by Hiveworks' developer, available to download for free. Requires PHP and MySQL.

3. Promote your Webcomic

Let's assume you know about social media, and skip right to some other resources:

ComicAd Network - You can put ads on your website OR you can put out ads and get the word out on other webcomic sites.

Piperka - I'm not sure how much this is used anymore, but you used to be able to list your comics for people to find it.

Archive Binge - This functions as an aggregator tool, letting readers track comic updates and keep your place on one website.

TopWebComics - It's a toplist -- which basically, you get your readers to vote for your comic to boost your ranking. (They can vote for others, too!)

The html I use is less complicated than what many of you used to do for your custom Tumblr profiles, or what kids used to do for their neopets lookups. I made one simple template to my liking and all I do to update is copy that template again, then manually alter the links as needed.

For a typical webcomic that would mean you're only updating the links to the comic page and navigation buttons, then adding a link to the new page in some master "archive" page.

Click this link to see a very dumb comic all about how to download the page and use it for your OWN comic.

HOW SIMPLE IS IT??? So simple, the entire guide could really just be this single panel:

disclaimer: I am east asian. if anyone who is not white sees anything wrong with my phrasing, inaccuracies, or insensitivity, or something I missed, please feel free to add on. I’m just one person with one perspective; none of what I say should be taken as The Singular way to draw an Asian character. if you havent done so already, please take the effort to expand your view of Asian culture outside this one tutorial.

Image description for the original post and my addition are underneath the read more at the end.

Thank you for reading! Once again, image description for my images and OP’s images are under the cut.

Just like OP, I’m only one single person, so if anyone wants to correct me or add something I missed, then go for it. And further disclaimer, there are exceptions to everything I’ve said in this post, and it only applies to East and Southeast asian people who are either not mixed or white-mixed, as those are the hair types I’m most familiar with.

Also regarding hair, naturally curly hair absolutely is a thing in e/s/se Asia. Our hair runs the gamut from loose wavy curls to tight, kinky coiled hair.

Blonde or red hair and blue eyes are also possible in Maluku and Papua, due to genetic quirk that has nothing to do with having white heritage.

On to types of curly hair Asian people can have:

[A picture of Sandra Oh with a long, curly shag haircut, wearing a pink blouse against a white backdrop] Sandra Oh is a great example of an east Asia person with curly hair. She has wavy/curly hair.

[A picture of Aarti Sequeria, an Indian woman with medium skin tone, shoulder length medium curls, wearing a green blouse against a colorful background]

Curly hair is also common in south Asia. This is Aarti Sequeria, an Indian person with tighter curls.

Then we get to the tightest curls.

[Three pictures of young people from Maluku or Papua Indonesia. The first shows two boys in blue shirts with dark skin and curly hair. The boy on the left has loose, dark curls and the boy on the right has dark red-blonde tightly coiled curls. The second picture shows a child with very dark skin with red undertones. They have tightly curled dark red-orange hair. The last one shows a boy with dark brown skin, dark ash blonde hair, and dark grey eyes. He is not wearing a shirt. End description]

These are all people from Maluku and Papua in southeast Indonesia. This is their natural hair color and texture. Also note how warm their skin tone is. As a note, the reason these are all pictures of children is that more often than not, those with blonde hair as children will have their hair darken as they get older. Additionally, note how the roots are much darker than the ends. This is because most of the blonde hair comes from sun bleaching rather than it coming out of the scalp blonde.

My family is from Maluku and I have cousins with the same bright red hair, and both of their parents have dark brown/black hair. I also have family who have blue eyes, but both of their parents have brown eyes. So while it’s very, very uncommon, it is possible for an Asian person to be blonde. However, unless you are depicting someone from these areas, the blue eyes/blonde hair is still very much a don’t do this, especially if you are a white artist.

I'm tempted to just say that all of my art takes place in a universe where humans don't have arms and we have to use our feet for everything, but that would mean so many cursed images of toes holding pencils and I don't think I can bring myself to impart that upon this broken world.

ART MASTER y'all really be out here boosting my ego 😂❤️ this is one of two art advice asks I gotta catch up on!

I can't name any muscles or bones, but I can try to show you the rhythm I use to hack it:

For larger arms, remember that joints (shoulders, elbows, wrists) don't store fat:

For muscle-y arms, uh, idk I kinda just wing it so any how-to’s I give you would be actively harming your studies lolol

Hopefully that gives you a bit of a foundation to build off of!

I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!

Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)

Since I get asked about making a Neocities, I've decided to make a post with some helpful resources so that YOU can make your own website!

Learning HTML and CSS

Neopets HTML Guide - A bit old and basic, but it's how I got my start learning HTML in an environment that isn't extremely overwhelming. If you want to learn the very barebones basics this is a great place to start.

Neocities HTML Page - Chock full of plenty of links and resources, and gives a somewhat more in depth tutorial.

W3Schools - If you do not know how to do something in HTML or CSS, it'll likely be found here!

Graphics and Goodies

Layout Builder - Customizable layout maker for Neocities websites!

Button Gifs (used for links back in the day, but can help spruce up a page)

Glitter Graphics - A whole bunch of 00's era graphics to decorate your page with

Ancient Tumblr Blogs and Masterposts for backgrounds

The Spriters Resource - One of the largest databases of video game sprites on the web, great if you want to have a very specific theme or image in mind.

Also generally speaking, poking around various Neocities sites will have a bunch of free to use graphics - backgrounds, buttons, blinkies, you name it.

Helpful Things to Have

Post Images - Simple, no frills way to upload photos to host off site to use for backgrounds, page decor, etc.

i can pretty much guarantee that ↑that↑ is not a heading you see everyday.

now i will not be giving advice on writing cyclopses, (though it may be sort of the same thing) i still hope this will be helpful for some people out there that are looking to provide a more diverse cast to their wip!

i have never ever ever read a book, watch a show movie etc etc that involves a character with one eye. (aside from those badass characters who wear eye patches bc they lost sight in one eye in some badass way)

for context: i am one of many people who was born with microphtalmia, an eye disease that results in one or both eyes develope smaller than normal at birth. i myself was born with a smaller left eye, which resulted in my left eye being removed exactly twenty days after birth.

microphthalmia (along with many other eye diseases) typically leads to being half or fully blind. i lucked out and only lost my left eye which i am so so thankful for.

i would really really love to see more representation for my community in literature, especially so people would come to see that being half blind isn’t as unusual and weird as people make it out to be.

without further ado, i present to you, a list of information, facts, and first hand experiences from yours truly!

i’ve had prosthetic eyes made to fit my eye socket for about fifteen years (i’m 16 lol) (the first 6ish months after the surgery i never had a prosthetic)

in my life i’ve had four different prosthetic eyes made because just like other people, my eye socket grew alongside the rest of me, meaning the prosthetic needed to be made bigger

i’ve had my current prosthetic for four years now, the past ones lasted about 2-3 years at a time. this one will probably last me through the rest of my life unless i need/want a new one

as opposed to most media/assumptions, my prosthetic (along with most prosthetics) is PLASTIC (people always think it’s glass) and only half a circle!!

i’ve had three surgeries related to my eye

i do not have depth perception which makes doing certain things very difficult (estimating distance, how close/far i am from something etc)

driving is not affected too much, i just have to turn my head more than other people. i believe being blind in the right eye might be more difficult, but i couldn’t say

doing my make up is kinda easy, except for eyeliner is a pain in the ASS since most people close their eye to do it on their upper lid, but clearly i can’t close my right eye whilst doing it lol

my family as well as my friends and even myself often forget i have a prosthetic, which sometimes results in awkward/funny situations

i hate walking with people on my right bc i can’t tell where they are unless i’m constantly looking down at my/their feet

i sucked at basketball bc i had such a disadvantage (no depth perception, i could only see half the court, i was constantly turning my head) but professional swimming is much easier for me since it’s not a contact sport and doesn’t really require for me to be paying attention to a million things at once

i rarely have to take my prosthetic out, and if i do, it’s either to clean it, (we do get eye crusties on our prosthetics just like other people do when they have pink eye or sever allergies) it’s bothering me/really dry, or i want to take it out to show/scare people lol

a lot of people don’t realize when i first meet them that it’s fake bc my recent prosthetic is amazing accurate to my real eye. others notice and assume i have a lazy eye since it doesn’t move

for some reason people think i can’t cry out of my left (prosthetic) eye??? i still have a tear duct??? i actually think more tears come out of my left tear duct than my right lol

i am extremely self conscious about it, but i know there are other one-eyed beauties out there who aren’t which is amazing!! i try to live vicariously through them lol

i make sooo many jokes about my eye lol, and i’m usually ok w other people making jokes as long as they aren’t like overly rude/offensive, then i’ll feel a lil bad about my self

people never really made fun of it, but kids in middle school likes to wave things in front of my left eye/on my left side that i couldn’t see which got really annoying after a while

getting custom designed prosthetics are available, but they’re really expensive (so are normal lol) they costs thousands of dollars, just like other prosthetics do

i run into things that are on my left side ALL THE TIME it’s actually kinda funny lolol

i try to hide my left eye/turn more to my left side in photos bc my eyes aren’t always looking in the same direction, which really gets to me

i wear glasses for both protection and bc my right eye is -1.75 lmao but i did used to wear non-prescription glasses purely for safety

i do have contacts to wear during the summer, swim meets etc, for when i don’t want/can’t wear my glasses but need to see. bc of this, i have a second pair of glasses that have no prescription

if doctors/scientists managed to figure out a way to fix microphthalmia (a birth defect), or do a sort of eye transplant, i would not be able to have that done to me because all parts of my left eye have been removed from my body

microphthalmia is NOT the only disease that results in the haver losing sight in one or both eyes!! there are many others, but it is not my place to share any experiences for something i have not experienced!!!

for once i just want to see a clumsy character who has one eye that WASNT a result of some tragic event.

so please please please consider including a character with one working eye in your wip. it would mean the world to myself and all the other members of the community (there’s a lot of us, trust me) plus, i wouldn’t mind starting an acting debut playing a half-blind female protagonist, that would be so dope.

“Think of your shoulders as a rhombus”

My free Cloud Brush Pack is available now for Procreate, Photoshop, or Clip Studio Paint!

A few friends asked me to make a tutorial on how I color fire and I decided why not!

hello! yes. SO since we are just doing hair ill go for shorter hair bc its what i draw most often.

i dont usually draw the scalp/bald head anymore esp for headshots but we will use it to explain. to start, i use a thicker brush for hair lines and press lightly. it gives me more felxibility.

step one i define where the hair splits. MOST hair has a part or a split, even if its only at the front. i sometimes draw more bowlcut/justin bieber bang front pieces but not ofteneeee

this seam helps me with the direction of my hair chunks. i usually mess it up or obscure it later, but for starting out it is helpful.ee

then i define the outer shape/silhouette. keep in mind: hair sticks up a LOT from the scalp usually. so if you have that bald head guideline, poof out. this pattern i show on the side of out/in/out etc works for a lot of hair textures if you amp up the curves, but not all so experiment and dont give everyone the same texture.

from here i add a few lines to the inside but NOT TOO MANY. think of CHUNKS, not strands. also as with the rest of my art, i dont close or clean my lines a lot. i erase the scalp line if i had one before i do this, as it will mess up the flow

If you type, write, draw, game, or generally use your hands a lot (especially if you’re prone to RSI or Carpal Tunnel!) try these stretches as both a preventative measure, and on the spot relief. Take care of yourself and your body, friends!

Start with hands up, fingers stretched out.  Stretch your thumb as far as you can over your palm. Hold and repeat 4 times.

Touch each finger to your thumb. Hold each for 30 seconds. Repeat on each hand 4 times.

Start with a fist. Open half way, hold for 2 seconds. Stretch fingers out, hold for 2 seconds. Repeat 4 times.

Start with one arm out, palm up. Pull your fingers back with your other hand. Hold for 10 seconds. Do the same with your other hand. Repeat 4 times

a little informational guide on trying to find skintones from 3d refs :)