The comic itself is a fantasy coming-of-age type story that started off as me and a friend just rambling about D&D character backstories. It's now neither D&D nor a backstory and we're having a blast
I post the full thing in advance + sneak peeks and random stuff on Patreon a lot. Also 99% of the new stuff you see on twitter etc (bug guy too) relates to it
Read the for free HERE (website) or HERE (webtoon)
how do you make your lines look so sharp and neat 😭😭 is it the canvas size or the brushes or just the program? im struggling sm it bothers me how no matter what brush i use it looks either blurry or too pixely and my canvas is already around 4k x 4k or is that too small
I'm gonna hold your hand while I say this: my canvas is on average 1000x1200px or something around that, I very rarely work bigger 🫣
It might have to do with the software or brush engine used tbh, I know it makes a huge difference for me if I use CSP or something like Photoshop for instance. Clip studio paint is my favourite and she never betrays me when it comes to the brush feel.
It could also be your brush settings specifically, but without specific details it's hard to say what setting exactly may cause you to feel that it's too smooth/too pixelated. If you use a tool like CSP, you can always do what I do and download a million brushes from the asset store to compare LMAO. Some brushes are designed to be used in bigger sizes and look completely different to me (my brush size tends to be 3-10px max), some are great for small canvases, etc
i have a question about the picture of the very big turnip from last ask:
velnna, if you could be an old person holding a very large fruit or vegetable on tv, what would the big vegetable be? what would your news banner on the bottom say? i like that photo a lot. thank you for sharing your art!!
I took a personality test once that said I'd be a broccoli so this feels like the appropriate response
How do you feel about Mary Sues? Personally, when it comes to Baldur's Gate 3 OCs in particular. The game is very much wish fulfillment and the characters while extremely well written do have Sue-ish traits. Karlach was a fighter for an archdevil, Lae'zel is an outsider of an all powerful "alien" race, Shadowheart can literally become a chosen of Shar and or Selune and is regarded as such, Gale has an ex relationship with that of a goddess and knows one of the most powerful wizards in Faerun and is held in high regard, Astarion has an incredibly tragic backstory, somehow has NEVER been caught in two centuries, etc. Minthara is a member of a noble drow house, the Dark Urge is the literal equivalent of an almost edgy for edgy sake character of being a literal Bhaalspawn but not just any Bhaalspawn, Bhaal's own signature creation! Halsin doesn't really have much flaws either. Minsc is purely comic relief, and Jaheira is probably the most developed. Either way, I think it's safe to say that when it comes to writing, people can have fun with it, and still make something relatable and flawed.
This is an interesting take and good food for thought. I'm going to disagree with this on two levels: my own personal definition of Mary Sue and the application to the writing in BG3.
To me, a Mary Sue is more defined by the way the world/other characters react to them than by objective traits they may have. It's hard to define what exactly constitutes a "quality" or a "flaw", so the way I see it it's got more to do with how these traits fit into their lives and the world around them and how much sense they make - and also how others see it in the same world.
In a well-written story (in my opinion), the same traits that some may seen as good and that give a character advantages are looked down upon by others and can hinder them in different ways. A character being smart and calculating, for example, can give them a leg up in the story while still getting in the way of their emotional life, interpersonal relationships, trust in others, etc. So just saying "they're smart and successful" wouldn't paint them as a Mary Sue UNLESS the writing ignores the downsides or different interpretations of that.
In the case of BG3 specifically, firstly I disagree that anyone falls into the definition above. You can argue they have a lot of "good" traits and successes, each in their own way, but the game is extremely self-aware and allows you to call each and every one of them out for their behaviours. You can criticise Shadowheart for being too blindly attached to her goddess, you can tell Astarion to stop being a power thirsty asshole, you can confront Wyll about his choices and responsibilities, etc. Even during the game they have plenty of opportunities to stumble and be caught by their own shortcomings, which shows you the flawed sides. I agree that there are details that could be seen as very convenient (like Astarion not being caught for 200 years) but I'd argue that's more of a plot hole than a quality attributed to the character
Whether they're relatable to the average Joe, probably not, but then you also need to consider something about games like this and D&D parties in general: they're MEANT to be heroes. The story will paint them to be just random picks but you need to keep in mind they're the picks that survived and already had the traits to save the world - which means they ALREADY had to stand out. It's a case of survivorship bias: you're only seeing the success case of the group of people who were good enough to band together and defeat the big bad, and not everyone else who may have tried but didn't have it in them. imo it's just the DNA of this type of story
Also on the subject of AI and navigating it, I found that something that works with older folk or people that don't understand why its casual use is bad is comparing what we have now with what we should have in terms of LLMs.
If I want to, say, translate Polish with AI, I should have a tool that accesses lawfully licensed, specific data sets. My Polish AI translator should only look at the textbooks and dictionaries and tell me what I need to know. What we have now with things like chatGPT is more akin to asking a rando how to translate something to Polish and then the rando travels the world and steals all the books on all the subjects from all the libraries then reads them all and takes notes then narrows it down and eventually finds the Polish words to read back to me, and in the meantime I've had to give them food and water and gas for their efforts, and soon I'll have to give them my computer and appliances for them to keep thinking about everything there ever was and talking to everyone ever and hallucinating to high hell. And all I needed was a sentence translated.
It's not the user's fault that we asked for a butter knife and they gave us a nuke, but we should know not to deploy it if we can avoid it.
(Oh and we're definitely paying for that nuke too, just not as a direct debit)
People don't care as much about being called Lazy. But calling them Rude? That gets to more folks. It's rude that they didn't bother to put effort into whatever it was they used chatgpt for. It's rude that they thought they could advertise to you with cheap slop, thinking that would get your attention. It's rude that they didn't care enough to actually write that email.
Honestly it depends on the person and what they use it for tbh. I have a lot of people around me justifying it as a progressive advanced way of doing things, so pointing out that chatGPT actually just makes them dumber and less qualified as a person tends to be more effective - also because it's objectively true lmao
"But how am I supposed to be able to finish my PhD in 3 years without chatGPT premium?" Maybe if you can't do it without a chatbot you were never qualified for it to begin with, Karen
How do you avoid AI? I am trying to quit it, but genuinely it is EVERYWHERE, to the point of absurdity. Every job I apply to is trying to make me use it; I regret even putting my own stories out there because it might get used by someone for AI. And if I even use it, I am becoming a hypocrite and fucking up the environment by giving the corporations money and wasting water. But then if I don't use it and make it known that I don't, the companies I apply for refuse to hire me. 😭 I can't even find anyone to RP with, and it is hell on earth.
It's impossible to fully avoid for sure. I honestly mostly made changes to give myself some peace of mind and see it less, but bear in mind I'm self-employed and genuinely never felt the need to touch it for anything either related to my job or personal life.
I changed my email provider from gmail to protonmail (they have an AI agent but so far it's a separate app and not a part of the actual email app) and the google drive to proton drive (again, separate AI agent). I switched my browser to Vivaldi (Firefox allows you to turn off AI I think, so I still use it sometimes if Vivaldi doesn't work, but I'm also trying to make a point to use more European tech idk) and I'm trying to switch search engines too but it's hard I'll give you that 😔 I also try to avoid apps that advertise themselves as pro AI (Ellipsus instead of Notion, etc)
Does this actually change anything? Not really but it keeps my daily life a little less stressful. When it comes to people I don't have a solution, either. I stick to being loud about how I feel about it and hope it keeps the idiots off my back and filters the good ones through
It's rough out there and you gotta do what you gotta do - as individuals we're not gonna be able to stop anything or even properly avoid it but we can stay true to what we feel and believe in, and that's worth something. There will always be people out there who see through this AI bullshit and gather around each other even if it doesn't feel like a loud majority 🖤
Just wanted to say that your comics are a joy to read!! Your work is a big inspiration for me, and a big reason I gave learning to draw another shot 😸 loving the Olga reveal, hoping to see more of her soon! honestly im probably about to buy the patreon so i can read ahead 🫶
Thank you!! Excited to share more with everyone ☺️
I'm being very slow right now because other things kinda got in the way but hopefully I'll resume updates soon ish
Redrew that one spicy comic from 2023 (I want to maybe compile these into a little zine down the line) and took the opportunity to test out a greyscale style 🤔 It's hard for me to feel like something looks complete without colour but I feel like it'd speed up my process
