I misunderstood the point of this ride

Hi there! This is the best exchange; I’m so excited. Thank you for drawing for me!

I had a wonderful time with the first iteration of MFD; the low-pressure, mutually enthusiastic and encouraging feeling of the whole thing was a breath of fresh air and a source of inspiration to me. Let’s keep that going! I’m so glad you’re here; please know that whatever your skill level or experience is (and these things are SUPER relative, srsly), whatever your style(s)/medium(s) of choice, I can’t wait to see what you make. Making stuff! It’s the best!

I happen to really love prompts, likes, and that sort of thing to play with, so I’m going to try and provide a bunch below, but they are entirely take-them-or-leave-them as far as I’m concerned. I’d appreciate you taking my DNWs into account, but apart from that, please have fun with whichever character, group, ship, setting, etc I’ve requested that catches your fancy. However you like. (On the subject of likes: note that the "Thematic Likes" and "Art Likes" links under the cut will open a separate post, in a new tab. I've kept my DNWs in this post because they're a bit more MFD-specific.)

Treats are very welcome and appreciated tremendously.

Eeee. ( Okay, here we go! )

Um, hey guys! Did not mean to disappear off the face of the earth quite so completely there. I have a lot of things I've been meaning to post about my life, and fan stuff, but ... apparently I have things to say about creator rights, pay for artists, and design contests, specifically regarding the Welcome To Night Vale t-shirt design contest.

I considered locking this post, and reposting it on my public, real-name tumblr, but ... I want to come at this not only from a professional artist standpoint (something that only kind of applies to me anyway), but also as a fan, someone who is always making creative work for the sheer joy of sharing my enthusiasm with other fans. (Maybe a little less often than I wish I could.) Over the last few years, I've increasingly found myself in the middle of a fan/creator divide on certain issues (this comes up a LOT with MCU fandom, sigh), and this seems like a good opportunity to address some of that!

So. This post came to my attention earlier today (via were_duck's twitter). The writer calls out the people of Commonplace Books (/Night Vale) for their design contest, which (they say) constitutes what is called "spec work:" design work undertaken for the possibility of future pay (where there is at least an equal possibility of putting in extensive labor for no compensation).

( An attempt to further explain spec work. )

Now, I think the Night Vale contest is different, ( because it's a fan contest. )

THAT SAID, ( here's why this still matters. )

There is one point made in that above tumblr post that is really important even in this specific situation, this fan/professional grey area (because I do think that doing the work for an official context starts to move across that boundary!): ( who owns the rights? )

Whew, I know that was long, sorry. Maybe I can try and make it a little more concise, later ... I'm behind on my project schedule for the day! Also, I mean, I'm not claiming to be the ultimate authority on any of this: I'm not an experienced working artist or designer. I've done very little paid work (mostly because I don't want my livelihood to depend on navigating this kind of landscape, tbh). I do, however, belong to a sprawling community of creators who base various percentages of their living on work for hire, and the faculty I've just been learning from all have decades of experience with these issues, which they worked hard to pass on to us. I welcome other perspectives, though! These are things I'd like to see discussed on the fannish side sometimes!

Also, for more on the kind of atmosphere that leads artists to be frustrated and wary of these kinds of situations, here's a twitter account dedicated to actual quotations from people trying to hire artists (mostly comic artists) to work for free. Ranges from funny to rage-inducing.

Texts from last night (in cartoonland):

Oh god my voice is gone. Next time I'm not doing it with a boy who can scream like that. [...] But I did try to show off and make Gerard proud.

(There was karaoke. Only the second time I've ever been drunk enough to do that done it, and I tried to sing "Welcome To The Black Parade" as a duet with my departing friend. And then I got talked into "Gin Joints" and "Sugar We're Going Down" before I gave it up for the night. Ow.)

Hey guys, hey. Busily scribbling away over here on my BBB art and the usual comics, babysitting a guinea pig and generally watching the summer population dwindle (although we'll have an influx of workshop attendees soon). Also, I finally, finally got to watch both Iron Man 2 and Captain America last week! WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT PEPPER/NATASHA?! (Okay, somebody might have, but I wasn't paying attention, and I am now.) Good god. More on that soon. Also, I was not particularly shocked to find that Captain America is basically one of the most well-put-together movies in the whole set; not only was the character himself delightful, but I just thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling and the historical setting and pulpy feel of the thing. Of all the Avengers films, that was the one that screamed COMIC BOOK MOVIE at me in a way that I could really relish.

I need to actually do some things for this fandom soon. Mostly I've been lurking around tumblr enjoying the fanart and the constructed-reality .gif sets (kind of the best thing ever ... even though you could not pay me enough to see this upcoming Spider-Man flick). Maybe I should create a fannish account over there (oh god, not again).

Also I'm thinking about dying my hair red (not quite Gerard-colored; more of a dark cherry red), while I still have this forgiving grad school environment to play in. I haven't done at-home hair dye since the beginning of college, jeez ... any tips, anyone?