Why/How did You Choose Your Avatar?

[Nivardy]

I'm very new to Tapas, and I'm excited to start discussing with people with the same love for story-telling as me.

So, I want to talk about your "avatar", the picture you have chosen for your identity on Tapas.

Why did you choose it?
How does it make you feel?
Do you ever wish it was different?

If you don't have one, what would you want it to be?

What do you have in mind?

Just because it's fun, please tell us your name and a brief summaries on your doings here on Tapas.

I'll start:

My name is Nivardy.

I'm the author of a webcomic called, CRUD I don't have an avatar yet, but if I did I'd want it to be something cute and instantly recognizable. I'd still like it to be a reference to literature in some way.

EDIT:

Now that I have an avatar, I want to say that I choose it to represent who I think I am.

I am a product of what I've experience.

The smores pop-tart is kinda tongue and cheek reference to my race.

The book underneath my water botlle is "Ysengrimus" and an inspiration that I'll leave a mystery for now. The St.John's Wort is also in reference to my name and Ysengrimus.

[Amecha]

My avatar is my main character from a comic I'm going to be doing after I do a more simple short comic for practice and experience. I love drawing her and recently did a wallpaper sized drawing of her and decided to use her headshot as my icon since it was the most recent piece I'd done. She looks calm in it so it makes me feel calm. I'll probably change it some day since I'm always so wishy-washy about my avatars. I'd probably just cycle through headshots of my MCs since I love them all.

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

Very good questions!

My name is Jen and I'm a fantasy writer on Tap. Specifically I write in the twisted fairy tale subgenre. My comic is My Friends in Distantland if you're curious.

My avvie on the main site is this:

-I chose it because it's one of my comic's main protagonists, Cathryn. I think her image best represents the tone of the comic: vibrant but with a touch of gloominess.

-It makes me feel like I'm letting people know what my niche is.

-I may update it someday as my art is constantly improving. Admittedly I'm a bit anal about how I present my work. Much like the character in the avatar! Heee!

Welcome to Tapastic, by the way! Very nice to meet you!

[SteamTK]

I'm Steam, and I have a few comics that I post on Tapas. My comics include Symphony Knights and 12, among others.
Honestly I change my avatar pretty frequently, but for the most part it's a caricature of myself. A few times I've chosen some of my own characters (headshots), but it's pretty uncommon. Sometimes my decision is based on my mood, whether I feel like I want to be funny, or serious, or whatever. Sometimes I just choose whatever recent art I made that looks like it would be cool as an avatar. The site lets you change your avatar as much as you'd like, so if I wish it was something else, I make it so. Not like I'm stuck with the same picture forever. I have the same avatar on the main site, but here's the full drawing:

This was done as part of a project for my Illustration class, which is why that "Ex Libris" text is there.

[Vanesalisa]

Deviantart profile and the pic I like Choices characters

[Amberday]

i was watching pokemon and roxie is so cool so i took a screenshot. period.

[shazzbaa]

I'm Shazzbaa, and my webcomic is Runewriters, a fantasy comic about ridiculous friends, strange magic, and occasional lovecraftian horrors. I tend to be wordy on the forums. xD

My avatar is an illustration of me -- I drew it right after I got my hair cut short and wanted to figure out how to draw my new look!

On one of my first forums I suddenly noticed that, despite the fact that I know people don't always look like their avatar, I associated everyone's tone of voice and identity with that little picture they chose to represent themselves. There was one lady on the forum who always tended to seem kind of condescending, though I wasn't sure why... until I noticed her avatar was this snooty-expressioned drawing of one of her characters. I knew it wasn't her, and I'd never assumed it was her, but subconsciously, that was only thing my brain had to go on, so I'd been reading all her posts in that tone.

So my rule from then on was to pick an image that's friendly-looking so that my posts would hopefully come across that way! I would also try to pick something non-masculine since, at the time, people online tended to assume everyone was a guy. Lately I use drawings of myself -- my first comic was a journal comic, so my actual appearance is a kinda big part of my brand!

[Nivardy]

I'm pretty obsessed with the concept of identity, and more importantly how others may perceive us. I really like how insightful this reply is.

I'm really intrigued by the idea of your comic, I'll check it out!

[anitacomics]

Nice question!

I'm Anita, creator of DAWN OF THE DAD, a silly family story with ghosts and teenagers.
My avatar refers to something my high school friends drew for me: remember those aliens from the Simpsons, with long tentacles and a scuba helmet? Same thing but pink, because I'm prettier u_u

[yondoloki]

Great question!

Hi, I'm yondoloki, and I make the comic The Changeling's Sister, a dark fairytale/psychological horror about changelings, fetches, abducted babies and all the other goodies the realm of fearies brings with it.

I'm usually very consistent with my avatar, since I often associate the image rather than the name of people on fora and such, so I very rarely change my own. However I did recently. My old avatar was my mark, that I put on my drawings when I sign them. But I noticed all the cool kids in webcomics use a face as an avatar, which does make sense since faces are more relatable than weird orange smiley-thingies, so I decided to try it out, even though I'm not super comfortable with it... I'll probaby just need to get used to it...

My avatar now is just a drawing of myself I did for the Meet the Artist meme over on dA.

[timinabox]

I just now realized that the option to set an avatar actually works. I put the one I have because I use it everywhere pretty much. it's the tim in the sims

[Evan]

I make a comedy comic called Penciled.

I can't remember why I first chose this avatar, but now I keep it because it starts people on an animated journey that I made.

When I see my avatar, it doesn't really make me feel anything.

I feel like I could make a better avatar, but I've had this one for so long that I've decided to keep it for now.

[Rueleer]

My avatar is the eye of an OC who's very dear to my heart, but also because I really love green eyes! X"D

It was done in a rush though, so I want to refine it one day. But ever since I adopted it a couple of years back, I've never tired of it, which to me is a sign that I should stick with it~

Though, because my OC is quite intimidating in nature, which I tried to show in their gaze, I sometimes wonder if I come across as that too. :"DD

Oh, and I'm Rue! I make a comic about cat boys. :'D Glad to have you join us on Tapas~! You should link your comic somewhere here~

[AmysGames]

My avatar on the main site is the "A" from my site's logo, and is mostly there to keep a consistent brand identity, haha. Here on the forums though, I thought it more appropriate to be myself, so I went with a drawing of myself/my persona!

[saerel]

I don't like chosing avatars, so I chose one that's a self portrait because why not.

[punkarsenic]

Why did you choose it?

because its a half decent drawing of me

How does it make you feel?

like i can draw

Do you ever wish it was different?

wish it was sharper and maybe more pleasing to the eye

Just because it's fun, please tell us your name and a brief summaries on your doings here on Tapas.

my names Aislinn, and i make a myth retelling fantasy comic called There was a War, about two girls and magic and a war.

[revisionstudios]

There was one lady on the forum who always tended to seem kind of condescending, though I wasn't sure why... until I noticed her avatar was this snooty-expressioned drawing of one of her characters.

...

So my rule from then on was to pick an image that's friendly-looking so that my posts would hopefully come across that way!

looks at avatar

SWEATS ;;;

I've never even thought of that before, how your picture can change your tone. A change for me might be in order, ahahaha. I just picked this one since it's a cool looking pic of my MC in Midwinter.

[miesmud]

Hello I'm miesmud Creator of Icebreaker, a comic about teenagers on ice.

The icon I've been using on the webs for the past months is my friends banana.

Backstory: My friend asked me if I could hold her banana while she went to the toilet.
I had some googly eyes with me, so I stuck them on the banana for no apparent reason. It looked so cute, so I had to take a picture of it

I think it's a good avatar since I don't want to share too much private information like my gender, my full name, my age, my looks, my situation and what not to strangers on the internet. I'm only on the internet to share my art, so I don't want any of my personal information to stand in the way. Ofcourse if you look through all my social media, you will find out a lot about me, but I don't want it to be the first thing you see.

I like my banana picture because it's recognizable. I don't plan on changing it anytime soon. People that change their icons/ usernames a lot are hard to remember imho.

ITS SO CUTE O M G!

[T.S.Thorn]

I just wanted to draw an ideal version of myself, simple.

[joannekwan]

All my avatars are some version of me.

On the main site it's this.

Kinda chill, kinda cheeky, how I'd like people to see me as a creator— approachable.

On the forums I use this. I made it with this icon generator

Still me, still casual, bit more quirky I suppose and a bit more unamused. I suppose I do go into more "critical" mode when replying to threads here, so it's fitting.