==> Kitsu: Do the doodly thing. You're an illustrator, a professional pu8lic relator, a ga♏er girl, c8splayer and a closet-case Ho♏8stuck fan. You do ♏any things with your life, too ♏uch perhaps, so this is your venting 8log.
personal tag: #heykitsu
Hello, guys! I’m still not ready to rejoin the art world due to rl, but due to recent changes to Tumblr’s policies, and a… less than stellar course of action, which followed previous restrictions, such as the tags restriction, the popularity filter and similar low blows to content makers and artists in these 9 years I’ve called this site a home, I believe it is finally time to move on.
I’ll likely keep whatever content I’ve posted on Tumblr and, unless updated otherwise, keep updating my @thornedembers tumblr while I see which platform feels most at home from here on, but for now, for information on where else to find me, please check the about page. It will be updated.
That being said, I’d like to extend a thank you for those that followed me through my arting escapades so far. Thank you for supporting me, liking and reblogging. I hope we can continue to truck along together, here or elsewhere in the future as well.
I’m hoping to have more art status news for you all soon as well. Much love and stay safe! ♥
Why, yes, yes it is! Let me fill you in. I decided to do the Inktober challenge this year for the first time. Got a brand new drawing pad and inking pens and am ready to give this a shot. It’s been way too long since I drew anything traditionally, and my tablet needs a bit of a break so… here we go. But instead of googling a random prompt list, I figured I’d try something different.
I’d like to draw people’s characters instead. Samples of my art can be found here. If you’d like to win a quick black and white ink portrait inspired by your character, here’s how:
This giveaway is followers only, sorry! Have to reward people who stick with me somehow, right? <3
One entry per person, please.
Only characters with clear screenshots and references apply. Can be any fandom, any game, even original characters if they have defined visual references.
All good so far? Then all that’s left is to fill >>this form<< !
Reblogs or likes won’t count sadly, but I appreciate the signal boost!
The giveaway will end 31th October 2016, as that’s the last day of Inktober. You may enter any time starting now until the end of October - but keep in mind that entering earlier gives you more chances to be chosen, seen as I’ll randomly choose one person each day, so that’s 31 winners. I’ll be posting the results as we go along, hopefully daily or at the very least weekly, on this blog.
For tracking/blacklisting purposes, I will be tagging them #inkembers2016.
The giveaway is entirely free, of course, it wouldn’t be called a giveaway if not! As an added option, and this is entirely optional, if the chosen contestants would like their inks mailed physically, and are willing to cover mailing fees, I am more than happy to send the physical drawing over!
That’s all- thanks you and good luck! :D
art | nsfw art | commissions info | redbubble | gumroad | picarto | tipjar
Happy early Valentine’s, Lora ( @souspooke ). Ty for all the fisticuffs. I don’t think I’ve ever been so productive in a fandom as I have been for Homestuck and Dirk and Jake, and you were the fuel that kept me going. It was tons of fun and I’m hoping you too can look back with a smile. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. <3
art | nsfw art | commissions info | redbubble | gumroad | picarto | tipjar
Since it’s gonna be Valentine’s soon, I’m revisiting old ships I never got over. I wanted to start with Digimon, and Daisuke/Takeru. A big heartfelt shoutout to @larulysses for being my first serious RP partner and a long, long time friend, over a decade. It has been a delight and a huge privilege that I cherish to this day. Much love, dear <3.
art | nsfw art | commissions info | redbubble | gumroad | picarto | tipjar
I’m starting the year off by updating the layout of this tumblr, as well as adding a few new features. If you have a moment, or think you might be interested, please don’t hesitate to check them out.
- RedBubble: e-store with prints, mugs, cellphone covers, notebooks and other gifts available. Feel free to have a look. If you’d like a specific design that’s not on there, feel free to request it and I’ll check if it can be arranged.
- Gumroad: will feature downloadable bundles of unpublished artwork files, sfw and nsfw. No uploads yet, but if you’re interested, feel free to request an email prompt for whenever I update there.
- Picarto: art streaming channel. Still working of figuring out the best schedule but it’ll likely feature weekly streams. It is also possible to sign up for notifications whenever the channel goes live.
- and finally, TipJar: a donation site where, whoever can, can leave a tip that will go towards a fund for a bigger apartment and living expenses while I’m still studying, as will, of course, everything else I manage to make. Every 100€ worth of tips I’ll make a raffle for a sketch, so if you tip, make sure you leave your tumblr or mail in the message attached.
I’ve also linked my NSFW tumblr, Pixiv, y!Gal and FA - in good hopes I remember to keep up on those as well.
What remains, is a revamp of the commission page. I’m looking into a couple solutions about those so hopefully I’ll have some updates on those soon.
EDIT: Commissions revamped… if closed at the moment. Will notify when I manage to open a couple slots.
I wanted to post this update here as well, because even if I’m not the most active artist in the homestuck fandom, I still take Homestuck commissions gladly (canon characters, fancharacters etc...) and will hopefully have open slots in the near future. If interested, feel free to have a look. If not, have a lovely time and fingers crossed 2016 brings you tons of happy updates.
For those of you attending Närcon 2015, I’ve got a table all 4 days. :)
I have prints, gifts, notebooks, comics, framed artwork, charms, bookmarks and, of course, custom commission options. Feel free to come have a look!
The artist alley schedule and information can be found here.
Find me also at: ack-art.com | akitsu-47 | thornedembers
It was a bad pun on a combination of things probably way too obscure to make sense entirely.
1) I liked Tails from Sonic as a kid. I also thought he was female and I platonically shipped him with Sonic. I was like, somewhere between 5 and 10. The fox was my favorite animal.2) Somewhere along early teen years there was a fad that everyone online had to have a cool Japanese nickname and my friend said they'll translate a name into Japanese for me so I thought of Tails. And Sonic was blue. So I said "blue fox". They said that's "kitsune aoi" or somewhere along those lines. Whether that's correct or not idk. Also that's around the time I realized Tails was, indeed, not female. I never saw the cartoons, just the games so...3) Cause I posted art, fanfics, did cosplay with that nick it stuck. I literally have people online and irl call me "Kitsu" for years. It was terribly disconcerting at first but it's been over 10 years now so I got used to it.4) When I started this blog I was in a stressful situation irl. I wanted a blog name that would "call me to arms" for drawing. And since my real name starts with "A" and both my maiden surname and "Kitsu" start with a "K" I went with "ak-47" with a "kitsu" shoved in there.5) So it's sorta just "Kitsu" really. My current surname starts with a "C" so, technically, I could just go with "ACK". Sounds legit after all the above, no?6) Thanks for the ask!
Heyyas! I seem to be not... posting that much artwork and posting text posts instead hm. That's not really like me, I suppose, but I'd like to toss a little PSA out there.
There's a couple things attached though. One of them is, the original idea/artwork needs to be sourced. Doesn't matter if it's mine or another artist's - we all put our time and effort into making this thing you like so. Please please always source. If you can't find the source, there's always google image search - so yes there is no excuse.
Personally, unless my fan artwork is being reused for profit or causing controversy/conflict with the original idea, I will not mind one bit if you use it. Everything I post on this blog, I post under the CC copyright. Keep in mind though, not all artists support this licence. So if you're not sure, ask first. No matter how amazing your idea, unfortunately you're risking to get in trouble unless you have the consent of the author. Technically, and you may not know this, even saving an image that is not licensed under CC or free stock to your computer is already considered a copyright infringement. I kid you not. I had a full exam on copyright laws in uni, I promise, this included.
Reposting is a tricky thing. As you may be aware, on tumblr, the author of the original content can have your work/post taken down if they so wish if you don't have their consent for reposting. So asking is always a very welcome common courtesy. But. The trouble of reposting is not just a petty wish for notes. Because, consider this; without all notes in one place the artist has no insight into any kind of statistic on their artwork. It may not seem important to you, but some artists on tumblr may rely on notes and reblogs to determine which of their work is the most successful and proceed to analyze why and it may lead to them choosing one future artistic path over another. At the very least, I did and still do this. So, if you repost instead of reblog and get say 1000 notes, even if you source me, those are 1000 notes I will likely never see or take into account. So really I'd rather you reblog something you like because it helps me heaps.
If a reblog is not possible and you're posting on another site, then I 1) advise you to be sure the site allows such a thing. Doing this on DeviantArt is illegal, for example and I am strongly against it. Don't get yourself suspended because of likes/comments, or whatever it is you're after by doing that, it is really really not worth it. And (not 'or') 2) source the original. Such as the stuff on Zerochan. It's a bit of a gray area that site, I have to say, but it is better than DeviantArt by far, at least in my opinion.
If you're having trouble understanding why this is an issue, imagine the following:
Imagine working for years to learn anatomy, colour balance, shading, perspective. Imagine stacks of papers and sketchbooks and notebooks full of studies, of ideas, of hard work. Imagine putting all that together to draw something from the heart because you really really love it. Imagine it takes days, and you're so focused you forget to eat or drink - but alas it's done! And you post it on your blog, wondering if it's better than what you've drawn before, and in which way, could you have done something better? Wondering what if you did something different when you see the response. Did your idea get across? Did you accomplish in saying what you had to say with your drawing?
If you can see the notes, if you can see the comments; you can learn. You can get fuel to keep going, try again, get better. You will keep making more. It's in this state of mind that artists grow. Making them unable to see feedback, whether by removing the source back to them or by cutting off their feedback by reposting, will make it harder, if not next to impossible to do so. Not to mention it might get you into legal trouble.
Now. Some people may or not be aware of all this. Personally, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt before anything else: which means educating them, politely, on the matter first.
Some people might be still learning and using other people's art as references. Which is okay. It's a-okay to try to re-do a pose someone else drew. But what does that mean?
It means you're looking at the artwork and studying. It means you're constructing your base by looking at the artwork, side by side with your own. It's a perfectly okay thing to do; it makes you learn and it helps you understand things better.
What it is NOT, is putting a layer over the reference image and tracing the contours. The difference is usually glaring because someone who traces will likely not be someone who understands why a specific line is thinner there and bolder somewhere else, or why is that line at that specific angle or has that specific curve- in other words, to people even vaguely trained in art, it will look fake because it will have no learned, individual, skeletal base understanding. You're not doing yourself any favors there but only hindering your own artistic growth. It's a lot better to make your own bases and try to draw on your own, because even if you think what you drew is not as 'great' and what you could achieve by tracing: from personal experience? You're fooling yourself. Every time you make mistakes you learn. The more mistakes you learn from, the less mistakes divide you from the artist you want to be. So don't take shortcuts. Take tips, take tutorials, take courses, but never shortcuts because the only person you're cheating is yourself. And you know, it's also illegal, so there's that.
So for references, at the very least a link to the original is fine. Telling the artist you referenced them is even better. Seriously, go nuts, study, draw, draw, study. You can do it and you're gonna be great in the long run.
Wow long post. One more thing though:
Thank you to the people who take their time to leave a message about any artwork violation, to me or any other artist. Thank you to the people who ask others to source artists. Thank you to who takes their time to educate people on why the lack of sourcing or reposting is harmful. And thank you to all artists who day in and day out struggle and try to get better to contribute to the fandoms they love or the artistic world in general. I apologize if my wording is off somewhere or if there's better sources to be had, but I tried. Good luck with your endeavors!
Hi, I am Erica! How are you? :) I am a game developer and I and my team are currently working on a latest game. We would like to ask you a favor. Can you test it out and see how it works? Will take ONLY few seconds! Would appreciate your opinion and feedback. Try it on my Tumblr. Thank you very much darling, tell my how it was we can chat later!! Erica :)*~
Hi, Erica. I’m okay, thank you.
No, I can’t test it out because you’re linking to malware/spam. But here’s a headsup to my followers: don’t fall for this.
hi;; i'm sorry to bother you with a simple question like this, but i didn't find a direct answer in your faq - is it okay to colour your lineart/wip drawings? if so, would it be ok to post it on tumblr if proper credit is given? your art is super inspiring. thanks in advance! ;w;
Hey! Sorry for the late reply, didn’t get notified of any asks at all for some reason, hm… thank you skbjkfdbf
Sure tho gosh! Go right ahead! :o Thank you for even considering it! Just link me later cause I'm super curious and excited to see! :D
Also this got taken down from youtube, for shame! This was awesome. I remember drawing frames for this like mad- wish I had where to download it because it was amazingly timed and edited and just overall gape-worthy.
