Art Is Good

I am angry and hurt, and I was a big fan of Avid. I am so, so sad. I loved their characters, I loved their music, I loved their shenanigans. I loved the bedtime stories he’d tell us on Monday nights.

I had assumed the worst about Scott when Avid and Marm started talking about Yaoi Slop. I began to question Legs, Drift, Pyro, and Shelby’s character when I saw them hanging around Scott. These were people I LOVED, and still do. They make incredible stories and characters, and never deserved my doubt.

I hated myself for a WHILE for not recognizing how Avid was uncomfortable with flirting, even though they initiated it in VSMP. I chalked it up to poor communication of boundaries (on Avid’s part) being received VERY poorly by Scott. I found Avid’s constant talk about misogyny so draining at times that I legitimately was told by my therapist to watch anime to take a step back from a parasocial relationship that was causing me harm. Marm seemed to really enjoy the thesis they were writing on gender, and Avid seemed to love talking about how much they were hurt by misogyny. I still think they made valid points, but looking back on it now it was very inflammatory and caused a lot of finger pointing.

A lot of other fans probably felt the same, I know, but this is still such an odd form of grief. Avid was my first comfort streamer- directly from my first mcyt obsession ever, vsmp. I still have so much love for what they created, and will miss Monday night streams, the crease in their face when they laughed, the little voices they have… as a person studying finance I’m also going to miss hearing about the finance and tech world from someone who gets it in the mcyt space. It was a special place for me.

But for those of us who feel this way, I want to highlight what Doovid said.

I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with my animatic. I have to think some more.

I’m a little over 20% done with lineart (I’m probably not going to go beyond that) but the iPad I’m drawing on is actively fighting against me! Sometimes I just have to stop working altogether and give procreate a second to reboot!

Cinnamon roll Avid was the first go at this that I thought of (see the famous cannibalism jokes about sweet characters eating a cinnamon roll). I really wanted to make sure whatever sweet treat I used got those curly bangs in there, and I add some cinnamon sprinkles on his face as freckles.

Peppermint Avid was my take on a more royal look for Avid, playing up the bad-nonbinary entity energy that fit such a strong flavor. His hair and cloak are made up of peppermint bark while the main two bangs are small peppermint hooks, and I’d like to think his sword is a sharpened peppermint stick.

Recently, Avid has been trending towards more emo/alt fashion (eyeliner, died hair in his skins, just the entirety of his misadventures and mass!sbk skins) so I thought I’d keep to theme and try adding some emo elements with Oreo! His hair would be a grey mess (think blended Oreos) with a bit of cookie sprinkled on the top to match marm’s flower placement and give him some more feminine design details. I added his glasses on a whim- not sure if I like it or not but I think it distinguishes him from his other characters so far and adds more roundness to the Oreo theme. His jacket is shaped in a spiked biker jacket, but his spikes are made up of Oreos too.

Marma1ade and Vintage Applesauce just made sense as their namesakes. It kinda felt too obvious.

Marm has the jar on her head as a little hat (a design I like so much I recycled if for Vintage). Her hair is the main marmalade, but I made the peels and fruit pieces sit on the place where flowers normally adorn her head. Her shirt is plaid, mostly because I wanted to mimic the plaid I associate on the outside of jam containers. But also I think a collared shirt looks dashing on non-men too and want more of that.

Vintage was more difficult mostly because I haven’t drawn her enough to really feel confident in her normal design (heck- I’m still not happy with MARMS). But I wanted her hair to be applesauce and her face to be covered in freckles that are, once again, sprinkled cinnamon. I wanted to give her a “vintage” look, but I’ll be honest I need more practice drawing vintage outfits! I went with a low collar with a fancy trim and gave her a necklace.

If you made it this far, I have a sneak peak at my next sketch dump: