It’s you friendly neighbor fanfic author here. In the light of this apparent new trend of people feeding unfinished fics to AI to get an “ending,” and some people even talking about “blanket permissions,” let me just say this:
I EXPLICITLY FORBID ANYONE TO FEED MY FICS TO AI. DUDE, THAT IS ABOUT THE LEAST RESPECTFUL THING YOU CAN DO. IF YOU DO IT, SHALL YOU BE EXCOMMUNICATED FROM YOUR FANDOM AND WALK ON LEGOS BAREFOOT TILL THE END OF DAYS.
And if I somehow come across mention of you doing this, I am going to track the author down, let them know, and proceed to make sure people know what kind of dirt-bag you are.
Look, I’ve been reading fic on the internet practically for about 25 years, and I have encountered many a fic I would murder several first borns to know what happens next.
I also -unfortunately- am also responsible for a few unfinished fics out there, but I want you to hear me loud and clear:
NOTHING IS ABANDONED.
I’m just working on other shit like trying to be a person, you know.
But it’s very simple: if you want to know what happens next in anything I have up, unfinished:
ASK ME.
I actually have shit written, I have outlines, I have hundreds of thousands of words stuck inside me I will vomit all over a person if even marginally asked.
Just ask my poor partner who got to listen to me talk about a massive reveal I have been sitting on for 10-15 years. (…oh Amy Bradshaw, I was merciless to you.)
I promise you right now with 1000% surety: no AI exists that will ever figure ANY of the turns I have planned.
Mind, I also know my shit is so niche and specific the likelihood of someone trying this is slim. But just fucking don’t for ANYONE.
Hello! My name is Jenna Barton, best known online as Dappermouth. I'm a Utah-based illustrator who paints strange animals and mysterious places. I love strange-yet-familiar feelings, gothic American scenes and liminal spaces. My shop offers high-quality prints of my artwork, on both paper and apparel. I'm so grateful for the support I've received as an artist, and I hope the artwork will connect with you in some way!
Don't forget to follow artist @dappermouth for even more of their original art.
Hey!
God, I’ve been gone for almost a year. I already thought that I would not be able to restore access and return at all. I’m still in a big shock that so much time has happened. It’s incredible!
I will try to come back. I’m restoring Instagram now. God, I’ve missed you incredibly! I hope within a few days I will be able to reply to all of you in private messages (although some are almost a year old). Excuse me.
I’m coming back! And, of course, I return the drawings to the wall) It’s time for Neji and Gaara to appear again in your news feeds х)
ouough i had a dream also that zekrom and reshiram had like. Baby Forms. like freshly after splitting they were Baby because they were still only halves of a whole being, not yet fully developed. and those baby formes were CUTE AS HELL i will draw them later. i was also zekrom in that dream and it was fun
I know you use emojis for inspiration for your angels but how did you get started on drawing them? I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it because it looks epic but the designs are either too close to the source or I unconsciously draw someone else’s design.
NEZ'S GUIDE ON HOW TO TRANSLATE OBJECTS INTO DESIGN ELEMENTS
These aren’t design rules, just my own approach to what I do.
After picking the object, the first step is to break it down to its main elements, pick what of those will be your main focus, and decide what you want to be conveyed.
The emoji mashup bellow has 3 hearts in the center, circled by several tongues. That's both the breakdown and the focus. There is a circular shape in the background, but that’s where it’ll remain; as a background characteristic. What do you want to convey? Basic shape language works well. I wanted this design to feel safe yet serious. So squares and circles it is.
Same method applies when there’s several emojis involved, although there’s more breaking down to do. Horns from the devil emoji, long white hair from the old lady emoji, eyes and whiskers from the cat emoji. Now, that is not enough to make the design but it’s well enough to be the elements we want to focus on. I want to design to be sharp, so every other design element should be there to enhance that feeling without stealing the spotlight (the armor, the sword, the spikes/blood, the wings. Look how sharp the shoulder blades are in comparison to the previous design)
In both cases, you pick the focus and work the rest of the design in a way that enhances it and follows the shapes (round, sharp, square, etc) you've chosen.
‘’The designs are too close to the source’’ When that happens, instead of breaking down the elements you should focus on describing them. Take a rose, for example. Don’t write flower with red petals. Write that you’re looking at something red, voluminous, layered, with uneven patterns, small spikes, green ovals (the leaves). That way you can take the elements that build the original object and apply them to your design. There will be a connection, but not an obvious one.
‘’I unconsciously drawn someone elses design’’ If only I had a dollar for everytime someone compared my angels to Shin Megami Tensei or Persona, even tho I didn’t knew about the game's designs prior to drawing. It will happen, don’t take it too personally. There is a way to TRY and bypass it. That is, don’t look at other character designs while working on your idea. Take your inspiration from nature, from historical/cultural designs (Instead of searching ‘knight’ on artstation, search 1800 medieval armor on google. Historical references are amazing) and from objects (dont google cyber-person, just search for your favorite machine as reference. See how the inside of your fave phone looks like). Take what you find and break it down like I did above.
LET'S TRY IT TOGETHER
I picked a rose; vague and simple enough. When there’s seems to be not enough elements to break down (flower, petals) and you don’t want it to be an obvious rose, you can do it by describing it.
Breakdown; red, voluminous, layered, uneven patterns, thin spikes, green ovals.
My focus: red, uneven layers, spikes
What I want to convey: Sharp, unnerving, uneven, organic. Like a big bad plant that has flesh and it's messed up
1. I wanted to incorporate spikes into the design. Googling spiky armor made me find the best reference of all; siberian bear hunting armor.
2. The headpiece was one of the last designs to be made. Several versions playing with spikes and rose sepals were made, but discarded. I left it alone until the following day. Take a break frm your design if it's not working. Also, if it's not working after the break, remove it altogether. The first design (3) has no face mask, just a grade of metal shaped into flowers covered an otherwise hollow space inside the helmet. I filled that space with flesh in the angel one, tho!
3. Before designing an angel, I designed a knight version. The focus here was volume, drama, red. Hence the massive dress whose layers resemble rose petals. For angels, I need to have a less 'fashion design' and more of a 'creature design' approach. Here we go
For the angel, I removed the dress and added legs, with armor resembling the arms; wavy and layered at the top, spiky at the bottom. Left an opening in the middle to add reds. While it’s difficult to tell in the concept art, the idea is to have layers of flesh rolled together in rose-shaped bundles. At the thighs and the torso. They’re connected by veiny, fleshy bits. From that, emerge the wings. Small but fleshy. The idea is to convey that something lives within the armor, whose shape we can’t understand. I love adding organic matter inside the angels. No need to work hard on the halo, since the crown is already round and around. Here they are, rose inspired but without a single obvious rose.
Wake up babes NEW ANGEL dropped, would yall let them tend to your garden yes or no
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the thought process behind designing my creatures. Here is a more indepth answer, accompanied by an example. It seemed to have helped a lot of people to de-mystify what I do. Hope it helps!
