Q: What makes a good story?
Frankly, I’m not sure? To me a good story invokes emotion, it invokes something in you that is either positive or negative. When it surprises you, that’s when I think it’s a good story. It doesn’t matter if the ending is good or bad, if you put the story down and are disappointed it’s over, you did a good job. I tend to go with the flow when I write or paint, so it’s hard for me to pinpoint actual tips or tricks. Just follow your gut.
Q: How can you get interested in writing?
Frankly, as soon as I was able to read and write, writing became an interesting concept to me. I always made up stories in my head with little to no way of expressing them until I was offered a pencil. Once I knew how to write, it was over for everyone. I tried writing various ‘novels’ when I was a kid — I remember in 8th grade I wrote a whole 150 pages novel for fun. I’d go to the library at lunch and work on it in a binder filled with lined sheets and just… wrote. The librarian would sometimes check up on me out of sheer curiosity. There weren’t any ipads or anything at the time, and computers were limited access (I also didn’t have one at home), so it was all good ol’ paper. Then when the internet became a thing, I began posting my writing online as fanfiction. While english is not my first language, I developed an acute feel for writing in english that I didn’t have, and still don’t really possess with french. It was a lot of work and dedication, but it’s paid off. I guess my best advice is: do it. Just do it. No one has to read it right away, just write and see what you come up with! You never know, you might be the next King!
Q: What do you like about horror and modern fantasy?
The kind of horror I like isn’t really shocking gore. While I can write gore quite effectively, looking at it is another story (unless it’s cartoony like Mortal Kombat’s for example). What I like most is a sense of dread — I like psychological horror most because you cannot see the threat as something palpable most of the time, but as something that makes you feel uneasy and off. I’m very hard on horror novels because of this. A good example would be extreme horror in books: it doesn’t do anything for me. It annoys me because it’s all shock value and repetitive. Think of, say, Silent Hill 2: the scariest monsters are not the ones you see but the ones you don’t see, only hear.
When I speak of modern fantasy, I’m not talking about armor, dragons, etc. I mean worlds that resemble our own in some way, shape, or form. There can be some magic. Technology is often used as well. Hunger Games and the japanese classic Battle Royale — even Squid Game — is a good example of what I call modern fantasy: it is a world parallel our own with real implications. Modern fantasy for me needs to be believable enough that I feel it could happen in this world, yet is pushed to another extreme. Perhaps I’m not using the right term to describe this, so it’s possible I’m wrong, but it is what I enjoy. The stakes are so important when it comes to this genre.
Q: Do you have advice on collaborating with friends on writing?
Be open to suggestions and let in other ideas than your own. It’s easy to get lost in your own ideas, but more often than not, someone can add some spice to your established ideas, and you theirs. For example, in my university years, I created a story for my last term that would be turned into a short comic. I brought the story to a trusted friend who immediately noted what was wrong because he was an onlooker from the outside. It helped me bring the proper connections for the story to flow better.
You can also do this as an exercise: writing stories with a trusted friend, in which you both add to the story as you write. It’s a great exercise, kinda like patchwork passed on from one hand to the next and back. You may have very different writing styles, and yet it can flow fantastically. And you learn a lot from that.
Q: How do you both take turns writing characters reacting to events, and what makes a good character reaction to an event?
So when I speak of collaborative writing beyond getting help from friends, it’s a fancy term I use for roleplay. Many people do not know what roleplay is or how it works, but calling it collaborative writing makes it easier to understand.
This is something that can be done on various websites like tumblr for example — I’ve also seen it done on twitter and facebook, which I have tried but did not much enjoy. Discord is also a place many will use. When on websites like this, you can collaborate with various other writers, complete strangers however, to bring each other’s characters to life — or you can do something more private with someone you know and trust with emails, google docs, whatever you want to use as long as it’s easily accessible to the participants.
I perfer the more personal approach where I create a broad story with a friend and move from there. One person begins the story with their character(s), and the next person reads it and has their characters react all the while adding something for me to respond to. So, for example, if my character asks how the other is, then my writing partner can have their character respond to the question, then perhaps add a question of their own. The same applies to events, which can either be plotted in advance, or thrown in to surprise the other (I personally prefer getting surprises because they’re so fun to respond to.) So it’s essentially a back and forth between characters and events that advances the general story. Again, an amazing exercise for those who like to read and write.
Q: You mentioned you would like to write and illustrate a novel one day. What should the novel be about?
I would! I’ve had this story for almost a decade that I’d like to put to good work. Illustrating it would be so fun as well. The novel would be a psychological horror story about a young woman who met a demise so violent she is now trapped in a specific building as a wraith. The novel would be a series of short stories from other people’s perspective as they meet her in that building. This is the big jist of the concept: now I have to work on it lol
Q: Why do you like collecting mugs?
I like pretty things lol I also collect crystals, not because of their meaning (though I really enjoy learning about them!), but because they’re pretty and shiny. The same pretty much applies to mugs. I love coffee and I love being able to choose which special mug I’ll drink from that morning depending on my mood. Mind you, they are never very expensive mugs: if they were, I would put them on display and not drink from them lol
Q: What do you like about liminal, weirdcore, dreamcore, Frutiger Aero, and Y2K aesthetics?
I think the reason I enjoy such an aesthetic is because I’m an extremely nostalgic person. I remember feelings more than events, and they bring those feelings right back to me. Weirdcore and dreamcore fascinate me as I have always been very attracted to the strange and images in dreams — liminal gives me that loneliness I often crave without the negative effects of it. It doesn’t really scare me, it makes me feel at home. Frutiger Aero is the future we were promised but never got, so perhaps it’s about me mourning for what should have been but never was — same for Y2K aesthetic.
Q: How do you define an aesthetic?
With the feeling it brings me I think. An aesthetic will evoke an emotion in me, depending on what it is. Sometimes it can be nostalgia, fear, joy. It really depends, but as long as it makes you feel and has a sort of consistence to it, then I would describe that as an aesthetic.
Q: You stated that drawing fairly early helped you a lot with your mood. Would you recommend drawing if someone is struggling?
Not necessarily: I recommend doing what calls to you. It can be reading, biking, playing a sport, writing, coding, drawing/painting, painting miniatures, etc… Art is what helped me feel less lonely and even helped me make friends. Diving in what brings you joy and building community around it is a great morale boost, even in such struggling times. That being said, we all start somewhere regardless of what you choose to do, so don’t get discouraged, you’re not gonna be amazing at it at first, that’s normal, but the more you do it, the more you build community, and the better you will own your craft. You got this!
Q: What is art?
This is so broad. What is art? A story. It can be anything that, again, evokes an emotion both from the creator to the recipient. A painting, a story, a song, a statue, etc… It doesn’t matter what it is. Did that banana tapped to the wall make you feel angry? Then it did its purpose — it is art — but not the kind we’re used to seeing. Performative art is not as well known to the public, but it is art regardless. Is it worth millions, however? No. That’s a silly stretch that I think does need to be addressed, but that’s beside the point. Sometimes, pieces are made that you think are silly or useless is only because you don’t know how to look at it. For example, there’s a painting in a museum near here that is two navy colored vertical stripes with a bright orange stripe in between. At first glance, it seems silly to have this in a museum until you learn what it IS, but without a guide, you wouldn’t know that you must sit in front of it and stare at it for an x amount of time until your eyes pick up the illusion of a blazing fire. This artist managed to create this illusion by mixing the perfect colors and did not use a ruler for the stripes even though they are perfectly straight. Suddenly, the piece means something. The story behind the artwork is often what makes the art. It doesn’t matter if it’s realism. semi-realism, abstract, etc… If you don’t understand a piece, look into the story behind it and see your perception change. I think this is what art is: the stories we tell with them.
Q: Do you have advice on steadily creating art?
Don’t stop. Don’t give up, but also TAKE BREAKS. Not everyone is able to create every day and that’s a-ok. Experiment a lot and accept you will fail often. My art has changed tremendously the past two years because I have opened myself to new things: what was a very comic book like style changed into full on paintings and that too is okay. You won’t learn anything if you don’t try something new, and it might be something you end up using over and over again! There are a lot of tutorials out there. Many artists share their process or even create tutorials online, and evens hare their tools, etc. Patreon and Coloso are great places to start, as well as Youtube. I discovered many artists via youtube. You have an infinite resource in front of you, something I didn’t have when I was young and learning the basics. Use them! I promise it’s worth it. And again, accept that you will fail. A lot. It’s part of the process and not a waste of your time. If you want to learn something new, you have to fail first. So don’t give up and keep going regardless of the results! I promise it’s worth it!
Q: What makes art personal or impersonal?
Personal art, to me, is when I create something for myself first and foremost. It involves my feelings, my thoughts — it is personal to me and it is up to me to decide if I wish to share it with an audience or keep it to myself. If it invokes something in someone else, great! But that wasn’t my first intention. Impersonal is when I don’t make are for me but for someone else intentionally, for an audience. I want someone else to feel. Sometimes art can both personal and impersonal: for you and sending a message for others.
Q: In what ways have you seen the art community change in the past 2 decades?
It is far more aggressive and centred around money and popularity nowadays and that’s because of social media. Social media was not a thing 20 years ago — we had forums and specific websites to share our art, like Deviantart, Side7, etc…. Don’t get me wrong, everyone wanted to be popular 20 years ago too, on Deviantart for example, but the stress to make money from it wasn’t as strong. The competition wasn’t on the same scale. However, the amount of artists who have come out to educate others has increased tremendously today: there are tutorials everywhere, free and behind paywalls — before, I feel like many would gatekeep what they knew to keep their spot at the top, but nowadays, it isn’t like this anymore (for the most part).
Using reference. 20 years ago, there was this sentiment that if you used reference, you were cheating. This hindered a LOT of people, including myself. Nowadays it is widely accepted for the most part and that is SO important — I also think this is why there is such a surge of young artists who come out on top today.
Older artists will happily guide younger artists and share what they know to help them grow and I think that’s brilliant. The community is more united. Now of course it depends on the platform: tiktok is apparently horrible for that but I haven’t much seen it on my side. Youtube is an amazing source of art tutorials that has helped me greatly, alongside a few patreons I follow as well.
On a more negative side, AI is a problem we did not have under the last couple of years. The amount of people who are somehow offended that an artist owns their craft is baffling to me. The amount of artists who try to claim they don’t use AI but do, is just as baffling. So we have a big tech enemy that wasn’t there before. So that is a huge change that wasn’t even considered until 3-4 years back. I hope eventually we can get justice for our stolen work.
Q: The story of your username: Trelliaart
I’ve been through a lot of usernames in the past, usually associated with a video game I loved dearly. I went by MariaSunderland for YEARS, which later changed to VortexQueen, the main villain in Ecco: Tides of Times, a Sega Genesis exclusive video game from my youth and one of my favorite games to this day. I had a bit of a moment where I felt this need to rebrand a year ago however. The world was changing and so was I. I needed something fresh and started over. That’s when Trellia came to mind. Trellia was also a character from Ecco: Tides of Time, who was from a beautiful future threatened by the Vortex Queen. I decided that while VortexQueen sounded really cool, it is also the villain of the story and the world has enough villains as it is, so I switched to something positive, something meaningful and about a peaceful future I hope I will get to see in my lifetime. I just added art to it to make sure everyone understood that this is an art account.
Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?
NG has been around FOREVEEEEERRRR. I knew about it since I was in my 20’s if not before! haha! But I was under the impression it was only for flash like games (which I’m not a big fan of personally but it’s a personal thing about aesthetic and not the quality of the games themselves), or flash videos. It is while researching places I could post my art somewhere where AI is not allowed that Newgrounds, surprisingly for me, came up in the search. So for the first time in about 10 years, I decided to give it a look, and was pleasantly surprised to find a haven for artists of all kinds, between visual to musical and more. So I decided to take the plunge, and the fact it’s a website that has been around so long feeds into my nostalgia lol I do feel differently about it now: I think it’s a great place and people have been nothing short of inviting. I’m very cozy here and will continue to post!
