Shore

He/Him. Commissions OPEN -MINOR-

[shorebirdss]

Happy New Year‼️‼️🗣🗣

He/Him

I like radiation, history and birds 👍

Ignore this post i need to redo it

[shorebirdss]

Oops what's this

[shorebirdss]

Finally sitting down to work on two comics with the characters ever...

The one i'll be working on first consists of my WoF characters, since their story is basically just an excuse to world build!

I'm working on re-doing everyone's reference sheets, but here's Verbena's for now.

I'll make it look pretty in time for artfight, and this is the version without most of my design notes.. but who cares!

She's largely a sand/mud hybrid, but has some pretty recent Night and Skywing in her. I'll make her famioy tree later

[shorebirdss]

Made Great Britain (16-1800s ish era) into a cat for

A story

Because...I like history and cats are much easier to draw than countryhumans icl.

I wanna make comics based in history with my CH guys, but I dont wanna suffer through human anatomy just to do it so they're all getting hit with the cat beam

[shorebirdss]

Cat UK incoming

[shorebirdss]

Uhhhh ill be posting more on here about my countryhuman boys because I have alotta tjoughts amd have just been harassing my friends with nonsense for a hot second.

[sentryhex]

ive been looking forward to art fight the whole year as per usual but these new rules are seriously making me anxious and reconsider

asides from the 3d reference rule [which i wont speak on in this post, if thats what you were expecting] specifically the countryhumans/balls based on fictional countries being outright banned is tripping me up

i get the concept. i get the idea. i get the vision. i get that they can still be inspired on real things and thus can possibly perpetuate stereotypes which i get one wouldnt want on the site. but outright banning EVERY single one even if they arent based on ANYTHING real is just. insane ??

i have so many countryhumans/balls-esque OCs which arent inherently even based on a country because i really like drawing characters with interesting colors and patterns and am severely autistic for iconography like in flags and signs and whatnot so i love capturing the essence of that aesthetic, but now im not allowed to draw my green ball with a flower on her face because despite her being based on NOTHING but my liking for the color green n flowers, thats somehow perpetuating stereotypes ????

or ALL MY AND ONE OCS. they have a countryhumans-esque art style because i made them all based on AND ONE albums and their covers. i think propeller and zerstörer are my biggest examples of such. they suddenly wouldnt be allowed FOR A RULE THAT DOESNT APPLY TO THEM ?

like chat am i cooked am i coookeeddddd this isnt even all my ocs that could technically be offending but i still think this is literally so unfair

^^^ he could very well die but hes not a country hes not based on anything* this is literally one of my sonas because i like drawing characters in this style *hes only based on me i have several sonas in this style that arent countries and arent pulling on anything but art fight wants them dead i think 😭😭😭😭

[interncontinental]

i also have had to consider this problem and it is part of the reason i have never fully participated in artfight

while i understand the base of the rule, portraying real life and cultures respectfully, they ALSO do not permit fictional countries - something that is completely separate and unrelated. they are only connected by the fact they use the same species. it also makes people who use characters with patterned faces or flag motifs catch strays, because the a layman probably cannot tell the difference between a countryhumans oc and a character with tricolour facepaint or something. i can totally get the idea of the rule for real countries, but fictional personified countries are often completely innocent. they are at risk of portraying stereotypes no more than any other type of character. id argue less so, really. country personification artists are perfectly aware of the potential harm in their work and, typically, try to avoid it consciously. it is something we are always considering, because it is important for the medium. but yeah ive just found it a little disheartening. its the only individual fandom listed directly on the rules page. like did they have an outbreak of countryhumans in the past or something that made them completely ban us entirely

almost all of my ocs are fictional personified countries, or in some way related to country personification. its my niche! :] but this means i effectively cannot participate in artfight whatsoever even though my country ocs are some of the cleanest this world will ever lay eyes upon

[six-hundred-ninety-drawers]

Boy oh boy I thought about commenting on this, glad to see other people speak out, because I had the impression this rule didn't have any backlash whatsoever

My sympathies for both of you, you did not deserve this 😭

I might differ a little from these statements, because my personal opinion is the justification for the ban on country personifications as a whole is plain out ridiculous, as if you push it to it's logical conclusion, it negates the validity of the idea of referring to countries as any kind of cohesive entity whatsoever.

I believe it would be SO MUCH MORE REASONABLE if it was said countryhumans couldn't be submitted as ocs because of how much they rely on real world factors, and how often, designs from different people are still somewhat uniform

I theorized there might be someone in Artfight's staff with a Personal vendetta against Ch. Like. It bizarrely is the single fandom directly mentioned, when MIND YOU IT IS NOT A BIG FANDOM AT ALL

Not giving any room for ambiguity for fictional countries that might be completely original, while they DID JUST GRANT the benefit of the doubt to some tracing scenarios is also a big slap in the face of several artists passionate about world building

Pointing out how every original character might fall into stereotypes is very pertinent, it is REALLY difficult to not read it like this rule was written by someone who hates the concept itself, and isn't actually worried about respectful representations of cultures.

[sentryhex]

also responding to this one again but i also agree with it so much like. ive always had a gripe with people who INSIST that attempting to portray stuff in this way is inherently stereotyping which is inherently bad because thats not even how that works.

hell theres also some people in the ch fandom who make countryhumans explicitly based on very specific people like leaders so they arent even trying to stereotype the countries themselves but instead are making portrayals of actions of people and stuff that actually happened which seems people ONLY have an issue with if its done in the countryhumans fandom and nowhere else

but also insisting that any portrayal = stereotype and stereotype = BAD just straight up screams "YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO REPRESENT ANYTHING" so like wtf

^ at that point just ban concept of fiction altogether because then no one should be allowed to portray anything whether stuff being portrayed actually happened or is entirely fictional

it feels like these people are stuck in the mindset that ch fandom is the same as the one from like 8 years ago when people would do nothing but make offensive art and ship things and dont care about anything else

so again .. you're telling me i can portray xyz but if i do that but make my oc be colored like a flag i suddenly cannot portray that anymore and should be banned. like ok thanks

crazy how its like the only fandom mentioned too, i wonder how this is gonna affect hetalia

[interncontinental]

[gothicdruidstryix]

Hey, Glad to see people talking about this

I also think the banning of Countryhumans as a whole is just plain dumb. Especially their new, fictional ones must be banned too, rule.

Countryhumans have become more so about learning history, understanding other cultures, and just having fun world building. Less and less we see the “stereotypical” designs, and hey, you can argue anything’s a stereotype.

Stereotypes are based on fact, on something that is true, but is often taken as an overgeneralization or extreme. Nowadays, it’s really easy to label someone trying to represent their culture as someone stereotyping.

The ban of countryhumans may have originally been ignored, but banning a media really shouldn’t be a solution. I do agree that it seems oddly targeted, why are Countryhumans mentioned and not, say, Hetalia. They’re personifications of countries, i’ve seen OC’s from Hetalia, why aren’t they being mentioned too? Simple, Bias. I can go on and on about the stigma of Countryhumans, but I digress

Anyone can make a stereotypical, appropriating, or offensive character, and I feel like this one needs to be handled on an individual basis, not a ban. As I’ve said before, someone wanting to represent their culture could be seen as appropriating to others.

The ban of fiction made ones too is completely unjustifiable. They aren’t stereotyping, they’re expressing themselves in a way that feels right. Also, their reasoning is horrible, as my reasons stated above, but also EVERYTHING IN FICTION STEMS FROM REALITY. For example, aliens, they stem from weird creatures on earth or us.

And i’m ranting, sorry-

Overall, i’m not happy with this ban and it shouldn’t exist. Banning a whole media is wrong, and it equates to banning books for me. Inappropriate OC’s should be handled One-on-One, like every other website. I just hate the new rule >:(

[sentryhex]

youve put everything thats been on my mind since the start perfectly and i entirely agree with this [and im also happy my post could spark this conversation which i feel like some people really gotta acknowledge rather than turning a blind eye and sticking to their view of the fandom being entirely black and white] quite literally banning a form of self expression because of their squeaky clean only-giving-nuance-when-it-looks-good-for-us stance that they seem to be taking .. when said form of expression on its own does not differ much from others but nnnnope. ban. bad. we will not look at individual cases, we dont want to bother with you and wed rather ban you and your niche off the site entirely.

take this with a grain [or a ton] of salt but ive overseen some convos in the af discord briefly and their [i think a mod or something] explanation as to why fictional countries are banned is because "countries have a lot of diversity and countryhumans are stereotyping on the largest extremes, so if the fictional country is to be assumed to be diverse just like real life ones then even fictional countryhumans are based on stereotyping and we dont allow that". with that said it is obvious that they have 0 tolerance for fiction and if this is how they view fictional countries/countryhuman ocs then its clear as day they will never take general countryhumans seriously and just insist on this "its BAD" black and white mentality they have

and its funny because they likely can put this many levels of nuance into other stuff but here theyd rather be blunt and discriminatory. ESPECIALLY considering its the *ONLY* fandom banned. if it banned MORE than just this [and theres MANY more things that are on equal levels of 'stereotyping' here] then it would be a tad bit more fair but even then its still BS, and if theyre having problems with this then theyre gonna have to start having a lot of problems with other topics beyond just countries if they wanna be equal and upkeep their mission. but they wont. because they only care to shut down countryballs and countryhumans since they dont view it as a palatable form of expression and fiction. bruh

i dont think we deserve to be booted off a site thats about drawing fanart for others. they shouldnt be THIS pressed about how OUR ocs look unless theyre *actually* spreading harm and hate. and if someone would make harmful fanart because they think they can get away with it since theyd be drawing countryhumans then the person making said fanart should be persecuted and NOT our ocs which havent done anything.

it also sucks for characters that, while taking some appearance aspects of a country, dont represent the whole country itself but rather specific person/people [mostly those in power considering a lot of this is about history but there also is a lot of outliers like specific people whove achieved specific things] and like to build on top of that AND NOT STEREOTYPE WHOLE COUNTRIES .. but no apparently to the staff the only form of countryhumans is those who stereotype and yk, thats like, not good, so ban it. yea. yup mhm. oh this character which is colored like a country and is meant to represent how this country invented [thing] which revolutionized [subject] and that really interests me and i want to explore that and share it with the world, and its not meant to be the whole country but just this specific person/people who did this, yet it still counts as a countryhumans oc ? ban. how DARE you do that youre stereotyping the entire country and culture and people and everything howcouldyouevenconsiderdoingthis HOW COULD YOU !!!?!?

i also get all the people whove said that making a non-ch version of such characters and making them lean into more just being an oc than anything else could work and i do agree but i still think its unfair that this specific niche and design-language is essentially entirely unallowed whatsoever. my character based on xyz events that occurred ? fine. same character but happens to have a flag pattern on their face ? suddenly harmful to everyone ever and is appropriating everything. like.

extra stupid considering people do like seeing flags next to people's names in certain places like some video games or sites so they can know where theyre from, but if you put that same thing on a character its suddenly appropriating and stereotyping lmao. having that flag =/= representing EVERYONE who falls under it. simple as that. i may not be the ONLY resident of the country im in but i am damn well allowed to put up the flag of my country if i wanted to so why is that not allowed in OC form?

[shorebirdss]

Hey, sorry to poke my head into this but i'm extremely happy to see more folk talking about how CH got entirely nuked from AF.

This year should be my 6th year attending artfight, and ive recently gotten right back into the fandom with a few big projects under my wing. Seeing that I cant even post my dear Kouko really..bummed me the fuck out, I cant lie.

The mods entirely overlook the amount of effort and care that goes into creating countryhuman characters and its rather insulting, especially with my fictional nations of whom i've been working on for three years now. I think a large portion of our community put an extreme amount of effort into the characterization of nations that we arent apart of. Its actually exactly why in my personal CH au each nation has seperate personifications for the culture and the government.

Of course the AF mods dont give a damn, because the entire fucking fandom is apparently full of nazi fetishists in their eyes, nevermind the people (me) who are overtly passionate for history and found that CH and related medias were a fun and interesting way to depict history, think satirist political comics, you know?

Anyhow, I went on a ramble, mostly because i'm rather upset about this change in ruling. I just wanted to say that i'll be happy to do some drawings of everyones CH ocs on the side during artfight season. Not as a proper submission (I have little interest in getting my affount nuked) but because uh. Its fun.

Duh

LOL

[clairescosmos]

I know everyone is talking about the tracing rule on ArtFight but can I get some bottles poured out in memoriam of my ocs that are no longer allowed on site due to falling under the “fictional countryhuman” rule. They’re literally just guys being dudes your honour. They just also happen to be immortal and affected by changes to the region they spawned in.

I get why real ones are banned but the claim that “fictional countries may use stereotypes and generalization” is wild to me. Like that applies to every character and every fictional world, ever. People making new worlds are going to draw inspiration from existing ones, and that has an equal chance of ending up harmful.

I was super stoked for the HTML update as someone who occasionally enjoys coding and was starting to consider financially supporting the site, but now that I’ve lost half my planned roster I definitely won’t be doing that and am also feeling pretty burned. :/

Anyway, shoutout to this old sketch of my boy Alfred which would break 2 rules now.

[shorebirdss]

The False Albatross

Note: This is not a real bird, I made it up as a part of my nations project.

The False Albatross is an arctic seabird located mainly in the East Siberian Sea. They are the national bird of Sheeha and are said to appear when good news is on the way.

The gray markings on its face are to prevent snow blindness by absorbing the UV rays reflected from the snow.

Oh and its lower beak splits like a V shape where the upper beak slides between, it helps with both fishing and scavenging from old corpses

[shorebirdss]

Your art is absolutely gorgeous it deserves to have more recognition if I was Leonardo Da Vinci I would be proud of this generation I really hope you achieve your dream and here's a waffle for you

OMG TY!!! Im so sorry I never got a notification for this in my inbox till I decided to open up blr on my laptop XD You're soo very kind, thank you again

[shorebirdss]

Revisiting my second-ever fandom, Countryhumans for the silly haha's. Heres my design of America. His wings are based on the Red Tailed Hawk as a reference to how the bald eagle screech is really a RTH call.. also where I live they're super duper common, so they give America more than the bald eagle does lol.

[shorebirdss]

Bit of a redesign for this year! Not my best by a mile but I had more thoughts for his character design.

His balance is like totally fucked cuz of how shittily his wings are clipped by the way yep yep

[shorebirdss]

Revisiting my second-ever fandom, Countryhumans for the silly haha's. Heres my design of America. His wings are based on the Red Tailed Hawk as a reference to how the bald eagle screech is really a RTH call.. also where I live they're super duper common, so they give America more than the bald eagle does lol.

[shorebirdss]

He will be hit with the redesign beam in a hot sec >:]

[starrynet]

new uquiz! the premise is that you just got hit by a truck and are about to be transported into one of ao3's most popular alternate universe types. take this auquiz to find out where you're going

[shorebirdss]

O r a n g e

Ft.

Acrylic pens, Acrylic brush pens, Alcohol markers, and Coloured pencils

Because.. I got my drivers license and the first thing I did was go buy new supplies lmfao

[keferon]

I don't want you to write about Starscream. Can I still get lasered though?

Ffffine just this one time

[shorebirdss]

Drew one of my ocs, Mosh as a pony a few days ago for a style test!

She works as an artisan weapons carver for ceremonial stuff as well as family heirlooms, and lives with her partner, Concert.

She is also trans!! Ftm specifically but she still dresses femme and uses she/her pronouns, though she still wants to be called a boy (because she is one fr fr)

[shorebirdss]

Sat down and drew my favorite girl Verbena after shoving her onto the shelf for nearly three years now lol.

She's a Sand/Mud hybrid who works as an archeologist and is the lead of her team.