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Apr 1

I think there are a lot of different philosophies associated with making art that all have equal validity-- making it because it's fun, making it to encourage others, making it to process heavy topics and so on. It seems like there must be a lot of intentions out there in everyone's work!

What do you like to explore and what underlying feelings do you get from your work? I often feel like my art is a way I process complex emotions about 50% of the time but also goofy escapism the other 50%.

I always really want to explore the way people are shaped by their cultural norms and how people twist the meaning of their own words over time. Also I want to tell stories of people finding eachother in various ways...

But also I'm like five and can't enjoy anything that isn't full of magic and weird creatures and hot people. I also think a world where individuals actually CAN wield enough individual power to create change is like, the most gratifying escapism too.

What do yall get out of your work and what kind of conversation do you want it to start when you make it?

I think that is a worthy goal :laughing: 🤣

I like to get a good laugh out of people. :joy: If something's funny, you're more likely to share it with someone else, creating a unique connection. But also, I strive to make characters that you not only want to root for, but can identify with. I want to make characters that really get you thinking about their ups and downs, strengths and flaws, arcs and falls, etc., and how it reflects people you know. In other words, I strive to make realistic and unique characters. But it's not solely about characters. I hope to make a story with themes and elements that describe the real world, yet still encourage people to improve and always strive for something greater. :relieved: Anyway, that's my speech. Peace out, and thanks for asking. 🫳:microphone:

I see that in your work! The way your characters interact makes me feel really protective of them! It's like... they are just trying to live and it comes through well! <3

It's roughly 50% me trying to make myself laugh, and 50% wanting to tell a legitimately interesting story with my characters, while always trying to improve myself as a comedian and a storyteller.

I want to make something I'm legitimately proud of that is both intensely funny and dramatic, and I want to someday create a series good enough for an audience to care about what is being said. A series that can be both really stupid and say something thoughtful, where a character can suddenly go between one dimensional clown to tragic sympathetic figure.

Simply I just want it to be entertaining. What I actually deem entertaining changes constantly, but generally I always try to follow my sensibilities of "good" storytelling/comedy based on all the media I've consumed, build new ideas that I think are interesting/I haven't seen before, and make sure all my characters have distinct voices and deserve to be given attention by the reader.

That´s an interesting question.
I don´t want to say anything. It´s great when there are people who
dig the same things that I do but there is nothing that I want to
say to them

I started brainstorming Petrichor in 2016 and it was kind of a "what if worst case scenario" about what little I understood of the political climate at the time, and I kind of got into worldbuilding that and doing some research into science advancement and political history to feed the world.

I didn't realise how extreme Trump would be at the time, nor how bad brexit would be, and France narrowly avoided electing the far-right at the elections the following year, but it did get me thinking. In 2017 I predicted a climate crisis (in part to justify the characters having a similar obsession with the beauty of water to me), a deadly pandemic starting in China due to population density, lockdowns that contain it, excessive oligarchy, governments being run by proxy by the rich and not elected officials, Russia and the US becoming nuclear wastelands, nuclear war in Qatar, famine, and finally violent bloody revolution. So far I'm glad that I wasn't entirely right.

There's also big themes about characters in found families, finding your identity as an immigrant, and the duelling desire between desire to live peacefully even if that means accepting oppression, and wanting revolution to be free of fear despite that meaning that it's going to be a hard, long, violent fight that is unlikely to be won in your lifetime.

So... Yeah. It's sci-fi so it's basically a philosophical pamphlet but with pretty colours and neon lights.

While Skull Force Agents is an action comedy on a basic level, the story deals with the topic of toxic masculinity. The LGBT community has done a wonderful job addressing this in media, but I feel that there aren’t many stories that challenge toxic masculinity from a heterosexual perspective. Much of my story is about my character Walter learning to find personal validation in simply being a man just the way he is. I’m really looking forward to keeping this theme going.

If I were to describe my approach, I hope my stories are like 'Spirited Away.' Of course, I'm not saying my work is as good as Miyazaki's XD. The level is much different.:joy:

What I mean is, I hope my comics convey some of my reflections on things happening in the real world and my personal philosophies. But I don't want it to be too obvious. I hope to keep it subtle, even if only a few people notice it's fine, though of course it would be better if more people could notice.

I don't really want my philosophical explanations to overshadow the story itself.

But, if someone can understand what I'm trying to say through my story, I would feel greatly honored.

Oh man, there are so many things I want to express with my writing, it all depends on the story/piece. My poetry is usually a way of expressing my emotions, and so are my "Mental Soup Comics" and some of my art. My comic strips are usually because I love to laugh, love making other people write, and also want to improve my art.

My novels are because I have characters I got really attached to and I have emotions and plots I want to share with the world, but also because I want to share love, and the importance of being there to support and care for people. This is a recurring theme in almost every novel I write, though it shows itself differently every time.

Many of my essays are about things that aggravate or upset me, like racism, ageism, colorism, child *buse, poverty etc. I want to draw the world's attention to things that need to change. Some of my Mental Soup comics are about these things too

My work, a lot of the time doesn't feel like mine. Often feels like I'm just a channel. Almost like I'm being told what to put in there by someone / something far beyond my comprehension and understanding.

I don't have anything to proclaim in my story. To most other people it might be a dramatic/sentimental story or just a strange furry shit, but it is my baby. I don't see the point to elaborate more as I have good feeling with the story & no regrets (but not the efforts & delivery I have to muster everytime). As long as I keep it as initially intended and true to my vision it'll be alright.

For the most part my stories are just for entertainment. If I can distract someone from everyday stress then that's all I really want. That being said, I do eventually end up with some sort of message once I get to know the characters and realize how I want them to grow and change. Some of the stuff I've written about includes death (I write about this a lot, lol), loss, depression, sacrifice, and fate/destiny.

I also end up exploring things like the worth of life and of living and the effect of loss on those left behind. In my Wattpad Original story, Albatross, I go into the importance of letting people process things at their own pace and letting them feel those negative emotions. Some of that comes from my experience with depression and all the times I've seen people push this idea that you just have to force yourself to be happy to get through it. Another thing I cover in a couple of my stories is that everyone is worthy of love regardless of how "damaged" they might think they are.

But I also like to write silly things like henchmen being dummies that forget to take the loot after robbing a bank. :sweat_02:

I'm also predicting a future, though it's less obvious, since its not the focus. It's on the slow decline model - I'm following the catabolic collapse predicted in Limits to Growth. Everyone is much poorer than standard Americans today, there's far fewer cars - but since it's West Virginia anyhow and the protagonist is young, it doesn't show much - she doesn't realize what's happened. At least not yet.

I'm trying to present a lot of the fascinating and strange worldview of the American alt-religion scene, especially 19th century weirdness, neo-druidry, obscure American Indian mythology, and other strangeness, and thanks to the writings of a certain archdruid, ecology, historical cycles, and many other fringe theories naturally followed.

I also make myself laugh a lot, though I tend to fuss if the jokes make it into something I put out there because I really can never be sure what is funny to others or not, but I'm glad if I'm amused at least :smile:

I also hope that making art ect can pull likeminded folks together!

Actually that's really valid! Hetero men are statistically most likely to die by suicide and in so many ways they are often cut off from community based on the way society contextualizes them. I don't like to talk a whole lot about the modern world directly, but in my work there are a few characters that I use to explore masculinity and what it means to be a "good man". I would heartily agree that men need more positive examples and aknowledgement that there's nothing wrong with them inherently even if they've benefitted from society more than other groups.

Nah that's a vibe though and i can see the miyazaki influence! I really want to have a more subtle storytelling style too, though I'm not well suited to it as I'm quite prone to philosophical navel gazing among characters. I have a folder called "this doesn't need to exist" that are just conversations that I wrote but then cut for brevity... but was too attached to completely delete.

Your explanation resonates with me! What the characters mean to one another is a really compelling. Worldbuilding is fun, but I if no one is there to live in that world it's not as enjoyable!

Well,
Humanity has contextualized the creation of art through this lens way longer than it's been about lionized authors and their super smart individual talents. I read a short story once that drew its drama from the protagonist taking on a beautiful perfect idea from an external source, but the acquisition of skill to tell it made it impossible to share. I found that story very relatable XD

I agree! Making the thing that you see in your head that feels -right- even if you can't explain it, is nice. Also i tend to notice from an outside perspective that this is often how really cool/ingenious stuff comes to pass

I feel like people messing up in goofy/funny ways are amusing and also not completely disconnected to the "serious" themes too.

I just wanna info dump about my man

But I’m pretty sure ya’ll are sick of him at this point. I know I can sometimes. (Hyperfixations and special interests suck sometimes)

And talk about food and how excited I am to go to college in two weeks! And that I have a boyfriend! I have so much to say. I just don’t know how to communicate properly. Did I mention that I am neurodivergent? Probably autistic. Haven’t been tested yet but I’m looking for a person to go to get tested for adults. Cause apparently they only do younger people until they’re 21 where I live for testing for autism or ADHD. And I’m 22. Sooo…

I have big plans for my comics though. Working on The Elsie Clone High AU comic. Elsie is going great too. It will get a third season.

Any ideas on how I can make my own website? I need help with that

AAAAAAAA American alt-religions need more attention though! Such a great well of folklore and practice that has been forgotten or suppressed over time.

I make art for a lot of reasons.

Sometimes it is to work things out; a lot of my short stories are just me trying to navigate my thoughts, feelings, or memories. (If you've read them don't think too much about that hah;;; ) And on the art side I have a whole blog made up of vent art. Sometimes putting things into words in a journal just is not... enough, ya know? Gotta tackle it on a different level. One less "real" and "about me". Sometimes specific characters from works also get the vent-treatment, but usually with longer form stories/comics/ or more complex character ideas I'm more interested in the story teling aspect than the crying about my life aspect. Granted, nearly everything I create story wise has some kind of tie back to abuse; either the plot line itself or baked into the character[s]. So hey, maybe I do just use everything to cry about my life lmao

Sometimes I just want to tell stories. I want to express the worlds in my head, make them "real". The simple desire to create, and to create something totally mine. Not even for the "fame and fortune" of it all. I've ended too many projects that got popular prematurely because I had no interest in telling those tales anymore for it to be out of a desire for fame and fortune lol. Though I jump genres a lot, most all my stories talk about abuse. They also trend towards making your own family out of the bonds you make and not the blood in your veins. Lastly, how dishonesty ruins you. So I suppose those are the topics I want to start.

And sometimes I make art just for fun-- or I just draw or write to waste time like its some kind of white noise. Granted, this is mostly done with the drawing type of art. Due to my own problems (since its abundantly clear I got some of those at this point) I feel like I always have to be doing something so sometimes I'm really just because I'm too anxious to just relax. So I draw-- and make everyone pretty because I just like pretty :slight_smile:

I mean, Harry Houdini is pretty cool! I don't really know anything about making a website, sorry.

I also love Minecraft. A LOT!

Who likes Minecraft here? :upside_down:

My art/stories is meant to be a combination of entertaining, funny, subversive, provocative, immersive, relatable, mind-bending, and philosophically insightful all in equal measure. I'd say that summarizes my overall objectives.

AHAHAHA! Yes! One of the songs of my childhood! Classic! 🥺:heart:️

Kind of a vent here but…

I couldn’t resist after finding this on Pinterest

It really sucks and I wish I didn’t let it take over me. I have a boyfriend irl and I feel very bad. (He’s alright with my interest in Harry. He has many special interests too so he gets it.) I just need to remind myself I’m not alone and I have real living breathing people who love me. And my hard earned research is never going to be in vain!