Anonymous asked: HOW do you keep your inspiration from flying out the widow to continue TPoH?? or do you have to force out a new page every week? AND do you have plans for the story or do you come up with things as you go?
Actually, it’s one of the reasons I do all this fanart and have TpatJ on the go as well- which might seem crazy, but it’s true! I find having more than one project avoids having any one of them become a ‘chore’. If I don’t feel like I’m ‘in the zone’ for one story, I can work on another, and allowing myself to venture into doodling stuff that I like just for the hell of it doesn’t just let me learn new stuff, it keeps my love of drawing alive! I guess the danger I’ve seen a lot of people I worked with fall into is that drawing became just work; the only reason they drew was for work. Having weak hands I can understand this all too easily, as by the time you’ve finished what you have to draw you’re too mentally and physically fatigued to draw what you would like to draw. I’m in a bizarre, very lucky position where I can just about structure my time to accommodate both, and I find that it’s important to make time for the ‘like’ part for the very reason you’re describing. If I only drew TPoH, I would start to find it frustrating, draw much slower, love it less, and it would gradually pollute the story. I wouldn’t make it faster, I would make it worse. As for the story, gosh yes it is planned! But as with many things, only in parts- the joining up sometimes happens as it goes, but the majority of it and biggest scenes have been set since day one.
you know anon I was wondering, hoping, nay, wishing, to be called out on this because I didn’t think anyone would know about this fella but here you are making my day- I wasn’t really thinking about him when I first doodled down RGB but in the character refinement stages I definitely had him in the back of my mind
to be noted that Donald was always my favourite and Gladstone really is rather awful but… c’mon man this guy was such an ass of course I loved him
Anonymous asked: How do you go about getting your art noticed? I've been trying for some time, but nothing substantial comes from it. It's a bit discouraging sometimes.
sorry man, I get asked this from time to time and I still don’t know how to answer! the thing is I never really aimed for it, and even now I don’t really pay attention to notes- I just draw what I feel like I need to draw, and sometimes people really like it! it’s often the pieces I least expect to be popular that take off- also you have account for the fact that I’m an old fogey in terms of posting content online (like, I started back on DA and that was what, ten years ago? holy smokes) and a large part of getting an audience online is simply time; just keep producing content that brings you joy that’s the only real advise I can give you
Anonymous asked: I remember you saying a while back about the colors that RGBs screen drips meaning something, and I wanted to take a stab at what their meanings might be! (This was of course after I checked your shops and noticed your 'Colourful Personality' print) Yellow- fear/anxiety/cowardice/nervousness Blue- Sorrow/Sadness/basically all the 'down' emotions Green- joy/excitement/exuberance/playfullness Magenta- Curiosity/smugness maybe/possibly flirtatiousness too Red- Anger/Frustration/Annoyance
You got it! That’s a good summary actually because they all contain a bracket of emotions rather than being limited purely to one, so yes; while the individual instance is dependant on context the staple category for each is-
Anonymous asked: (seeing as we're on random question answering hour YAY) so I noticed you seem to use lilac as a recurrent colour theme for Reigen, which is awesome because it's my fav colour and I don't see it around very often; any reason to that?
oh! hehe kinda pleased you picked up on that, because
a) I really like lilac too
b) when Reigen gets his ‘own’ aura in ep12 it largely seems to be of the lilac-magenta spectrum, albeit with some rainbow variance
c) I was looking up stuff about auras for a different character a while back (hey remember Justin Case u guys) and indigo/purple has connotations of not only intuitive wisdom and clear mindedness, but also of spirituality- it can be seen as the 6th layer of an aura which is supposedly the ‘angelic’ body of an aura- which I think fits Reigen pretty well!
d) not even related to the character so much as mp100 on the whole but the association I grew up with was that lilac is worn as a symbol of recent death and has ghostly connotations, so symbolically speaking I feel it always has an edge of melancholy and the supernatural to it, I don’t know if that’s just a UK/Europe/me thing or what though…
Anonymous asked: okay you gotta stop killing me with all these adorable happy feelings for mp100 when I just know you're going to utterly destroy them later down the line I KNOW YOU I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE CAPABLE OF
I DON’T KNOW IF I AM THOUGH asjfkas I mean really, all these characters have been through so much already (are going??? through??? holy shit) dear god I can’t be giving them more to deal with when all I want is for them to be happy and eat nice things and like maybe? eventually all the espers end up working in shifts for Ultimate Dad Master Reigen so it’s like Spirits n’ Such becomes Rent-an-Esper and it’s legit a massive success and they all have enough time to do it and cover for each other and not get stressed and maybe they get together on Thursdays to eat ramen and then watch a movie and fall asleep and end up being slightly late for school or their day job the next day or whatever the fuck but they don’t care and I don’t CARE
I JUST WANT THEM ALL TO BE LOVED AND LOOKED AFTER WITH A STABLE INCOME
Anonymous asked: how are you constantly rocking my entire existence from the core with this mp100 fanart everything is so stuffed full of emotion???like for real how do you do that. with the feelings.
step one: have feel
step two: draw the feel
crying during steps one and two optional (but in all sincerity aaa thank you I try very hard to get that across if it’s been working that’s awesome :’D also tbh I have very. big. feelings. about mp100 like bro you don’t even know how much emotional connection I got going on with this series)
Anonymous asked: Hey, Mod!! I really like the way you write dialogue in your comics, It's just so good and natural and fun to read.. I've always struggled with writing good dialogue for comics, do you have any tips that could help me? (P.S. I hope you're having a nice day!!!)
don’t think about it too hard! and by that I really mean don’t tell characters what to say; if you’re having a hard time thinking what they would say, try having an imaginary conversation with them yourself! how would they naturally respond to you? then, how would they naturally respond to the other person in the dialogue you’re planning? do they have any words they avoid, or use a lot? do they have beef with this person? do they like them but don’t want that to be obvious? how does this affect how they talk? you, as an author, are not a part of their conversation- you are just there to document it. overthinking and over-planning can lead to stilted and unrealistic interactions between characters, so just try to let them do the talking for you
a lot of my writing is done with my eyes shut sitting still just trying to get myself out of the way and considering how my characters would feel and react to the situations I’ve put them in; the only way to learn how to write dialogue is by learning how to listen (also gosh thank you! :’D I will keep trying to improve and I hope you have a nice day too!)
