I hope they called ahea for the resteraunt; it's wonderful seeing all these characters, with fully developed stories to boot!, all in one place:) I salute and applaud your imgination and devotion for making them all:)
I hope they called ahea for the resteraunt; it's wonderful seeing all these characters, with fully
Thank you. Group pictures aren't easy and even in this one, I think proportions are off between characters. It's also tough to fit so many in one small space which is why I don't do many group pictures.
Thank you. Group pictures aren't easy and even in this one, I think proportions are off between cha
I normally don't do this, but you called Todd out publicly on this, so I am going to also speak publicly.
You need to have a good think about what you said to him here.
There are lots of people who aren't mentioned in this picture. Including, let's see, Todd's BOYFRIEND of the last four years. I think that should tell you something about this picture's intended ratio of internal characters versus external characters. You were not excluded for any lack of caring about you, but because this was a cast shot for a particular timeline of his characters.
And looking back, Flynn has been in a great many erotic pieces with Todd directly. Susi has NEVER been. You've gotten a lot more attention in the intimate art department than Todd's own life partner has.
Please take this into account before you publicly run him down for not including you in a group shot of his internal cast. That's not fair to him, and it does not show appreciation for what he HAS given you.
I normally don't do this, but you called Todd out publicly on this, so I am going to also speak publ
Again, like I said, it's not about the art at all. I never expect people to draw stuff for me. It was the line saying "Well, here's all of Todd's friends and family, minus these two people". Yes, that hurt.
What I am talking about was changing one line of text description to say "Here's all of Todd's friends and family except these two people and Flynn, who aren't in this picture." That's it.
Why is it that guys, and yes specifically guys, never understand why these tiny little efforts can be such a huge deal to women? It blows my mind. Literally three seconds of effort. That was all I hoped for.
Btw, I've known Sean for 5+ years, and for as much as he draws women he still doesn't understand us very well. Doesn't mean I care about the big red cheese any less. I've seen this kind of reaction before (not from Todd, but actually from Jalen), and it still confuses me. It seems to be a guy thing to get angry in a frustrated kind of way when a woman gets hurt by something he would consider inconsequential. This is probably why whole books are written on this stuff.
Again, like I said, it's not about the art at all. I never expect people to draw stuff for me. It w
I really should have been VERY clear about one point right up front but in deference to your feelings, I tried an apology instead that I shouldn't have had to. This image has always been fully intended to be a cast shot about my characters and my creations alone. In putting it up, I observed that the Dharken siblings' parents weren't in it but I also excluded Trent, Morgan and Lydia and a couple of others that are all my characters set in this particular universe and didn't mention them because they aren't as involved with this particlar group at the time frame the image is intended to represent.
In this instance, Todd is not meant to represent ME at all nor any of MY relationships. If it were to reflect those, then the makeup of the group would be entirely different. If that were the intent of this image and I hadn't changed the lineup, then that would have excluded first and foremost Susi, then the likes of yourself, Ssthisto, Onissarle, Will, Ayame, Jawz, Cyberhorn, Palshife and others I really won't enumerate at this time. To repeat, not the purpose of this image at all. It is merely a cast image of specific characters of my creation.
About any understanding I don't have of women, I've worked for and with mostly women for a couple of decades and NEVER would I claim to have even a remote understanding of any of them even after all that time. I'm far more likely to declare such a thing as utterly impossible. I might draw a lot of female characters but it's like being able to draw, say, a car and all its various parts in perfect detail - that still doesn't mean I know how all those parts work together to make the car go anywhere. It just means that I know what the car and its parts look like. Not that I would at all claim to draw any of these things in perfect detail or remotely perfect. Or draw them or anything at all these days.
I also haven't been the recipient of a great deal of understanding myself, often on the part of women. It's not like I don't have feelings and I'm bloody tired of having them hurt and saying little to nothing about it. Dealing with it is my own cross to bear but I mention it because understanding isn't a one way street that only I'm meant to travel.
Leave for a day or two and look what happens. I really should have been VERY clear about one point
Honestly, this turned into more than I thought it would, and I am sorry for that hun.
That said, I never would have had a reaction at all if the description had said "here's a picture of all my characters together" instead of "here's all of Todd's friends". Definitely a big difference, especially since there was something I didn't know.
You see, I had no idea which characters represented actual people. In fact, I assumed some of them did. But apparently the answer is none of them...which is surprising. Most artists who create a group of characters for telling stories usually base them off people they know, generally because it adds that extra touch of realism and connection to the material.
So...now I'm intrigued. If none of these characters represent your life, your friends or your partner...then who are they, really? I mean, who are they to you? Is it like with Jalen, where he gets specific ideas or scenarios in his head, and those become expressed as characters?
Honestly, this turned into more than I thought it would, and I am sorry for that hun. That said, I
It never occured to me that people would look at this as an actual representation of anything in my life. I live a fairly solitary existence and don't really know anyone locally outside of coworkers that I don't see socially.
My image descriptions are written in a story/narrative context for a more interesting presentation and to better fit the concept I have of most of my images taking place in the life of the characters involved rather than just being a picture. I find "Here are my characters" descriptions to be bland and lack imagination. I've seen several gorgeous images fall short of the true impact they could make by many a lackluster description. If I wanted to do a mere lineup and say "here are my characters", I'd be better served by drawing a "Usual Suspects" looking image but I find those boring to draw. I only reluctantly do them as height references usually.
I only have one character, possibly a couple at the very most, that is rather loosely based on someone I knew a long time ago, though the personality is different. The rest are all creations of my imagination or the illustrative and storytelling process I usually use with the help of various books and articles I've read on creating characters and worlds with some touches of what I would wish others would have done in various stories I've read over the years.
I suppose my characters would best be described as sort of imaginary friends, or fantasies in character form of how I wish things or events would have been or would be, or unexpressed or usually restrained apects of my own psyche. Susi often refers to them as parts of myself. I sometimes think of them in many ways as the children I'll never have when I step back from them and think of myself solely as their creator. There are components to the relationship that are indefinable in any words I can think of. I may imagine a scenario or situation but the characters usually dictate their own reactions. For example, I might draw Tori as a nun but she'd never act like one, not for an instant. It's not who she is and she lets me know that.
Not all of the characters I create are necessarily special, very personal creations - like the chubby dom chicken, Isadora, and her femme fox fellow. They're inspirations of the moment for the couple of images they've appeared in and I never really do much with them again unless another idea occurs to me. Sometimes I create a character that grows into something special later on under the right circumstances. Shimera's been like that. I drew her likeness as a strangely inspired vision of Danielle as a hermaphrodite that I never did much else with for years until I thought of how well she could fit into the Dragon Lady universe and her whole character has evolved from there.
I could likely write more about the relationship between me and my characters and still not touch on all the aspects of it but I will leave things as I've hopefully explained them for now.
Thank you and I'm sorry it did too. It never occured to me that people would look at this as an act
Wow. That's...huh. I had no idea that it was all completely fiction. Or rather self-expression instead of experience. I know you've been alone a lot, but I figured there were people from your past that were being partially represented.
Hell, I was dead certain you had a char that represented Susi. I figured it was one of the newer ones. :)
But, now that I know, I'm not sure what to think. To be honest, having a whole big menagerie of characters not based on anyone but rather just facets of yourself sounds...lonely. Of course, I've been saying for a while that I think you need to connect with more people, and I sure am glad you have Susi. Your art, however, still carries the implication of being "alone with yourself" for lack of a better term.
In fact, maybe that's why you got the art block? You're still trying to draw all these imaginary people almost exclusively when you have real people talking to you and caring about you. Maybe you'd feel better about your art if you put more of your actual life into it? Obviously, I don't know if that would make a difference, but it seems to me that it might.
Wow. That's...huh. I had no idea that it was all completely fiction. Or rather self-expression inste
The Dragon Lady character of Slimeinator is based on Susi's fursona and elements of his personality but in no way do I call Slimeinator my character, just like I wouldn't call Sunwurm my character either.
My problems with creating art have nothing to do with including or excluding other people or their characters in the work itself. I happily created art for years without ever sharing it in any way with others. Basing work on other people's characters seems to invite drama and disaster. I think I recall that Altermeta went on hiatus because of something like that and Lizardbeth's Broken Plot Device no longer exists because one of the characters was based on the artist's boyfriend before a really bad breakup. For the record, I did try to include others in the Dragon Lady universe, yourself included and had considered including others but for reasons I don't want to go into, that won't happen.
Likewise, I won't be basing any art on my actual life. Not only would that be appallingly boring to attempt to illustrate, to have to look at it would make watching paint dry seem epic in comparison.
The Dragon Lady character of Slimeinator is based on Susi's fursona and elements of his personality
I just thought it was a possible explanation for any art block you might have. ^__^
You know, I've had a lot of online comic artists tell me that, while they often pattern characters to some extent off people they know, they never directly insert people into their comics. Mostly for the reasons you said. Yet...isn't that difficulty a good thing in a way?
Like, when you're writing a comic, if every character is created by you, you're in control. As in, nothing can happen that you aren't prepared for. If you're friends with someone, write them in, and then that friendship goes South later...it's unplanned. It forces you to address something in your comic that's out of your control. What do you do? Play out the fight? Have them leave the comic? It turns it more into improv than strict storytelling.
Now, I'm not a comic artist (I only dabbled in it a bit), but to me that sounds fun. However, I can also see why artists wouldn't want to deal with those problems.
I just thought it was a possible explanation for any art block you might have. ^__^ You know, I've
Actually it was a roadrunner lady, Erica, who had a gecko step son, Tyler. The black widow spider, Maria, is a next door neighbor that has a black widow/tarantula hybrid daughter, Marisa. They're part of a different group of characters, so far.
Actually it was a roadrunner lady, Erica, who had a gecko step son, Tyler. The black widow spider,
