@OmenaKettu - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe your personality? You say that art is an essential part of human self-expression, which is very powerful, and you are passionate about art in all its forms. How did you develop your passion?

My friends describe me as passionate, giggly and a menace. I have trouble recalling a lot of the origins of my interests surrounding art, it might be one of those things that has always lied inside you and just has to be awaken? Now that I do think of it, trying to develop my own skills by broadening my vision and really pondering hard on every small detail of the things around me helped me to become more empathetic and understanding of art forms and styles I used to think badly of, for example modern art or art targeted by cringe culture.

Q: How do you feel being online has affected you? How would you describe your experiences with it? The origin of your username: OmenaKettu

I've kind of always been a terminally online gremlin since my toddler days, but I started inserting myself properly when I was introduced to an imageboard designed for children called Papunet. I saw people in there drawing cool anime wolves and I felt like I finally had found my people for the first time LOL. The amount of time I spent there posting foxes drawn with a laptop trackpad is concerning, the imageboard had set times of operation hours where it closed by 4 PM and I'd have meltdowns if my time with the site was cut down for the day. My addiction became less severe once I discovered other platforms from there that worked 24/7 like DeviantArt so my fears of missing out weren't an issue. A lot of my childhood was coming up with OCs, drawing comics and roleplaying with my online friends.

OmenaKettu is finnish and literally means AppleFox. As a kid I was a huge fan of foxes and some apple jam pastries from lidl. I came up with it when I had to try think of a more unique name than just 'fox-fan' and it just kind of stuck!

Q: How do you feel creating art has influenced you?

I kind of live and breathe art. I'm of course not an expert of it, far from it. I barely know any proper art theory or proper names for styles or artists, but art is something I constantly consume in some form and discuss so often I have a hard time of thinking of any other ways to meaningfully talk with other people.

Q: Where does your fascination with Goblins come from?

Oh man, I think we can blame World of Warcraft for that one. :d

Q: How do you feel that doodling at an early age, whenever you got story ideas, (what were some of the story ideas?) has affected you? In what way do you think that passion has evolved over the years? When studying other artists' illustrations and speed paints, what do you focus on, and how do you feel this has helped you?

  I've come to face the same issue all artists eventually do where the more you learn the craft, the more you struggle to draw for just the fun of it. I miss the days I could pump out drawings nonstop even if they were lower quality. On my papunet days I would constantly start new comics, uploading a few panels and then immediately moving on when the next story concept idea hit me. One that I think fondly of was about a dog that was turning into a 'golden warrior' where his teeth one by one slowly started turning golden.

When I was really trying to focus on learning art better, I hunted down speedpaints for artists that I loved and observed how they rendered things like colors and shading and little details. Atryl is one of the first artists I remember who's art I studied very hard, still use some of their brushes to this day. Of course my way of doing it is not the proper one, if you're starting out as an artist it's recommended to start with the basics like learning anatomy and understanding basic shapes foremost. Otherwise you end up like me who is good at rendering art but sucks at anatomy to the point of uncanniness. xd

Q: How to discover @MindChamber's art?

I discovered MindChamber's work through Madness Combat, 'With My Mind's Madness', 'Madness Regent' and 'Madness Accelerant' are to this day my favourite things to come out of Madness Combat. I just kind of fell in love with his art style at first sight and consumed near everything he had put out. He was a biiig inspiration during my art phase when I was focusing more on flowy and exaggerated cartoony stuff. Hell, a game project I worked on in school called 'PizzaBot' took heavy influence from his work.

Q: The story of you creating your account on 6/1/13

Pretty sure if memory serves right I made my account for the sake of Epic Battle Fantasy 3 :d I still yet didn't fully comprehend Newgrounds as a website, even if everything I consumed grew it's roots from there, I just had always consumed it through other platforms. I returned to Newgrounds to stay after becoming a fan of SleepyCabin in like 2017 and quickly became VERY passionate about Newgrounds when I realised it was the forefather of web art culture.

Q: How do you describe your experience of the NG Dublin Meetup 2024? Did you have specific expectations? And was there something that you were afraid of?

When I arrived on Friday I won't lie I was shitting bricks. I'm very much a homebody and suddenly I was all alone in a country I had not researched much at all and didn't understand anything of, at night time. My hostel sleep pod was humid as hell too to the point I barely got sleep, was regretting my trip hard at that point. But the next day when I could finally start meeting up with the other fellows everything clicked in place and it was SUPERB wonderful just walking around as a group and talking about NG stuff! Made all the suffering fully worth it. <3

Q: How did you become interested in history? What are some specific periods or events that you particularly enjoy? Was history also your favorite subject in school? What specific media about history do you really like?

I blame 'Once Upon a Time...' cartoons for sparking my interests. I really find the entirety of Bronze Age interesting, how humans developed their ways of society and culture each in such different yet all the same similar ways. As a kid I leaned more towards learning about Stone Age, I was fascinated by hunter-gatherer societies and inventions.

Q: Do you still like dinosaurs, and what did you enjoy about the "Once Upon a Time.." history cartoons?

I still follow some Paleontology enthusiasts on twitter, Protoceratops is my fav dino. :3 Once Upon a Time... Man and America were cartoons that I had playing on TV nonstop as a kid, the way they depicted life throughout different phases of history was really comfy yet interesting and educational, plus they made raw meat look like the tastiest thing ever. It's been ages now since I've last seen them but I remember being simply hooked on them, maybe I should revisit it.

Q: How does being born with a severe brachial plexus injury make you feel, and do you sometimes get frustrated when people don't understand what it's like?

It's something I've lived with through my whole life, so it's not like I miss something I've never had. But the disability was something that haunted my future since childhood regarding my employability. I only had one good working hand and no brains to make up for it, so art was something I was allowed to focus on since childhood in hopes of it turning into a career. Well turns out I don't want to make my art into a proper career, and I can somewhat keep up with my coworkers despite my mom's warnings, but I won't lie it is very frustrating to live with a handicap that sets you on a level lower from your peers no matter how hard you try.

Q: You mentioned that during your childhood, you suffered from an incomprehensible speech impediment and experienced occasional brain farts when speaking out loud. When I met you in real life, I didn't notice any speech impediment and understood everything you said. I am very surprised by this. How did you overcome your speech impediment?

When I was a kid I went to a lot of speech therapy. I don't remember when I exactly overcame my condition, my speech of course always made sense to ME but I constantly hear about funny stories and vocabularies I used to have. These days I'm good at 'faking it till you make it' my way through social encounters but there are a lot of times still I twist my words or completely forget them, even worse in English. I remember at the Dublin meet-up I was trying to ask Matt (Matt-likes-swords / Kupogames) to draw me NoLegs, accidentally kept calling him TwoLegs. I mixed the words up with goddamn warrior cats lingo.

Q: When you were a toddler, your family had to keep you in children's reins while traveling. One time, when you were not wearing them, you ran away from your grandma and straight into a pool, nearly drowning if not for a lifeguard. This horrified your mother and grandma, now you find it funny. Has this experience changed the way you view the world?

No, I do remember the moment I was underwater still but I feel like I was still too young to fully comprehend it. It's always been retold to me back as a funny story too which probably has helped keeping the memory as a lighthearted one.

Q: Do you feel that people can be too critical of art that might be described as poorly made?

Oh yes absolutely. I used to argue with my friends about the validity of illegal graffiti and modern arts. I think people often think too much about the techniques and skills that have gone into a piece, instead of the story, meaning or human soul behind them. A Person leaving their touch on the world even if it's just a dick doodle. Nothing pisses me off more than people harshly critiquing art done for pure joy's sake, like youtubers making critique vids calling meme animations done by kids as shit or in general people ridiculing beginner or otherwise 'weird' artists publicly.

Q: How would you describe your personal art preferences? Specifically what do you enjoy, about what you find nostalgic like MS Paint Sparkledogs and old Flash creations?

My tastes flip flop so much I have a hard time keeping up myself but generally I love art with a lot of tiny details so you can keep staring at it forever. I used to focus a lot on art styles inspired by 80s/90s urban art and fluidity especially when inspired by other NG artists, but nowadays I've been mostly heading towards a more semirealistic style as I've consumed more fantasy content in recent years. I looove old-school and grimdark fantasy art currently. However rainbows and glitters still remain in my works! :3

When I was a kid I played a shit-ton of animal dress-up flash games and watched 'Eevee Party 2' or 'SSS Warrior Cats' on repeat, but on the other hand I consumed a lot of NG classics as well, some examples I'll recall are Johnny Rocketfingers, Age of War 2, Castle Cat, Sonic Shorts and of course my beloved Epic Battle Fantasy <33 All the flash content I consumed has totally left it's impacts on me even as I continue my art journeys.

Q: What makes good OCs backstories, and intertwining Lores? what do you love about stories?

That's the beauty of it to me, it doesn't really matter when making personal OCs because all that is important is that they resonate with you. As long as that is the case, bits of story ideas and such will continue to bloom from there like a tree. I do totally view my silly little OCs and their stories n lores as a special garden I tend to. That's why I like stories from others too, to see what is important to each person and the ways they communicate their own passions and ideas in ways I couldn't come up with in a million years.

Q: Is it difficult being a Jack of all trades?

It's a double-edged sword, on one hand you can do a lot of things by yourself but on the other you're not really a master of any.

Q: How do you get the inspiration to try traditional art and writing?

Often by seeing things from other artists doing traditional art like showing off their sketchbooks or oil paintings. My writing inspiration comes often from fan fiction and I am not afraid to say it.

Q: Your experiences with doing graffiti? Why do you feel you were bad at it, and why does it hurt your only working arm?

I didn't have enough opportunities practicing different spray techniques or experimenting, I didn't really know places where I wouldn't be caught so I often had to wait for nights I was alone so I could sneak out of the house. I stopped very soon after a piece I made left my healthy hand aching so bad I could barely even press down on the spray cans anymore as I was working on it, and the following day my mom had spotted the piece and recognized it as mine. It was enough to convince me to stop LOL. I recently got to try graffiti again when my mom wanted to paint a storage house she owned, but I'm sad to report the spray cans still fuck up my hand and I'm not about to risk losing my only functioning hand.

Q: What does it mean to be oneself? 

Self-expression is important for the human soul, and it comes in many ways besides just art, Like fashion or hobbies. It's okay to change how you do it as you go about growing as a person, but never let anyone else make that decision for you. Never compromise on who you are, be unapologetic about it no matter how weird or fucked up you're declared from it. Because at least then you can at least know you are true to yourself.

@jackimojackimo - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: When and how do you get interested in creating your art?

Q1. I have drawings of Transformers and Venom and Bionicles and original characters from when I was practically a baby. In high school I took an introductory class on animating in Adobe Flash/Animate and it really sparked something in me. I was also starting to apply for colleges and searching for degrees and majors I was passionate about. Most schools have a general fine arts, illustration, or graphic design major, and I wasn't satisfied by those options. So I became really interested in animation, which inspired other offshoot tertiary mediums.

Q: Why do you feel that at 19, you became immersed in Hermeticism, magic, mythology, and comparative religion? And how old are you now?

Q2. Probably taking a lot of mushrooms, haha. I used to identify as an "Christmas-Easter Christian," I didn't think about religion a lot and I was pretty materialistic. I'm not here condoning drug use at all, I don't do any kind of drugs anymore, but that was probably it. I took mushrooms seven times in around a year, taking stronger doses each time. After the first or second time something clicked and I started researching Tarot. I found Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter Carroll, Advanced Magic for Beginners by Alan Chapman, 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, started meditating. I'm going to be 22 next month.

Q: When is something classified as occult literature, and do you have a specific way of choosing which books you would like to study? What rituals from the occult books have you participated in, and what have you learned from them? Along with what are the factors is that determine the quality of the books.

Q3. I would describe it as covering esoteric teachings, techniques, or philosophies. Esoteric as looking inward, spiritually and mentally, versus Exoteric, which would be looking outward materialistically. Some occult literature is really overtly occult and other stuff is more commonly accepted, therefore less "occult." Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophical texts, the Bagavad Ghita, the Kama Sutra, the Quran, and the Bible are pretty popular "occult" literature. These texts are usually taken literally or physically, carrying exoteric messages of community, war, love, law, etc. But they also have an occult/esoteric layer to their teachings. Examples of purely occult texts would be literature by Manly P. Hall, Aleister Crowley, H.P. Blavatsky, Lon Milo DuQuette, Gerald Gardner, Dion Fortune, and the few I listed above. Many revised, or even first-edition, occult books reference others or recommend others. So it's easy to go down a spiritual rabbit-hole in certain topics. It's easy to avoid money-grubby occult books, "self help" stuff, and "spell books," by sticking with acclaimed authors and modern writers. I've read a lot of Lon Milo DuQuette and Aleister Crowley. I focused on "Chaos Magic" and Tarot when I first started, and have been reading more about Hermeticism and practicing the Qabalah the past year. I'm working through LMD's "Son of Chicken Qabalah" right now (and almost done). Overall my life, mentally and physically, has dramatically improved. That's about all I can say that will make sense. If you're curious try something for just a week or two consistently, I guarantee you'll kinda get it.

Q: How do you research Hermetic magic and comparative mythology? Why do you feel drawn to the arcane? What have you learned about yourself from studying them? Which texts have you read, and what points from them intrigued you?

Q4. I research and learn by reading a lot. Most great books can be found free online as pdfs on Creative Commons sites, Public Domain, Internet Archive, a bunch of places. I've learned a lot about how I handle stress, anger, isolation, relationships, finding peace with myself, being inspired creatively. I haven't had any sort of "artist's block" since working with this stuff. I have an abundance of ideas, concepts, characters, worlds. Sometimes it's even overwhelming. Besides the books I've already mentioned I'd recommend "The Chicken Qabalh of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford." It's excellent. As is "The Mystical Qabalah" by Dion Fortune. Although she's pretty racist at the beginning. It's important to understand who writes what so you can evaluate when they may be presenting bias or bigotry. Occult authors don't know everything, everybody has weaknesses and faults and it's impossible to be absolutely perfect. I wouldn't recommend "The Mystical Qabalah" if it wasn't the best, though. It's the best at what it does. For such a popular occult topic nobody has really tried to write an expanded or alternate book to compete with Fortune's.

Q: What does it take to become skilled at a field? Where do you feel people go wrong when learning?

Q5. Just a lot of practice. Boring answer, but it's true. I animate constantly and I'm always learning even when I'm not trying to. Doing something over and over helps someone learn shortcuts, tricks, and techniques all on your own. You don't need to go to school. Youtube is awesome. But also trust your instinct and intuition.

Q: What was it like studying 2D and stop motion animation at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and how did it feel when you graduated with a BFA in 2D Animation and Digital Art in 2024?

Q6. I loved studying at Pratt! But I loved connecting with such a cool community even more. I'll always be friends and collaborators with members of my graduating class, as well as the classes before and after me. It's inspiring to be in an environment where everyone is so excited to learn and critique, and where everyone is constantly creating.

Q: How would you describe the feedback you've received on your work? Do you feel it has helped you, and if so, in what way? What aspects of that feedback were particularly helpful or unhelpful to you?

Q7. I think the feedback has been very helpful because it helps me become aware of my strengths, sometimes my weaknesses, as well as how to describe my work. Selfishly I create art that I'm super excited about and I don't reeeaaally care if people "get it" or like it (although it's awesome when they do!), so it's nice to visually and verbally see how people describe my stuff. OK maybe I'm lying to myself, I love when other people watch my stuff, but visual comprehension is not a priority. I think specifics are helpful, and I also think references are helpful. Many artists don't like being compared, but usually when somebody references something they're pointing out a specific thing that an artist did successfully as simply and quickly as possible.

Q: What do you look for in media, and what are the elements that resonate with you? Why do you feel they resonate? Are there pieces of media that you feel don't resonate with you, and why do you think that is? What does it take to be on “Phallic Don Inspirational Required Viewing”

I look for entertainment and I look for depth. I think an excellent example is Adventure Time. It's silly and fun and full of adventure -- but because there are seasoned indie comics writers of their staff -- it's also full of heartbreak, philosophizing, morality, and myth. I like to "get something" out of great media as much as I'm entertained by it. This isn't always the case, but that's usually the kind of stuff I resonate with. It's like a see-saw between both ideals. If something is pure entertainment I can find it lacking, as well as if it's so thematic that it sucks the entertainment out of the piece entirely. Aesthetics are also pretty important. I like pretty, colorful, often cartoony stuff. This criteria, as well as being "mystical" in some way is what it takes to make it on to my preparatory required viewing, haha. It's not actually required, just what I was telling people. I'm not at that level of pretentious yet, hahaha.

Q: When did you realize that your animation and senior capstone film "Phallic Don Is Dead" became an allegory for the forces of creation?

I was doing some daily spiritual practice which led to journaling which led to this crazy revelatory rambling micro-essay about life and death and sex and Phallic Don and Megafucker and Hermetic creation myths. It was pretty psychotic. But also pretty cool and connected a lot of dots I had left unconnected. I can't remember the date, but it was during this past Fall.

Q: What is your view and experience with the 12 principles of animation?

It's whatever, haha. I don't focus on it. I don't even own a copy of the Animator's Survival Kit, which is a heretical animator sin. It's not a checklist for me. I just try to edit and alter my drawings and poses until everything is satisfyingly snappy. I don't go for realism, I go for a kind of cartoon-comic logic of movement. If it looks cool, it is cool.

Q: Why do you feel you don't typically talk about the symbolism of what you make? And why would you describe it as revenge comedy? Yes, I think it's a thing because you made it!

Hahaha, thank you. I don't really talk about it because it's not for everyone. Some people want a trippy, surreal, experimental animated comedy with violence and light philosophy. Some people simply want to laugh. Or look at the motion design. Very few care about the underlying philosophy or message. Which is totally OK with me! I'd rather someone think about it and figure it out on their own, or create their own interpretation of it. I don't think "my symbolism" is the ultimate symbolism. Someone once said the author of the art knows the least about it. As for the revenge comedy, Phallic Don started because I was searching for genre's I loved and could replicate as an easy start. My favorite film of all time, Mandy (2018), is a revenge-horror-thriller-romance with light comedic and fantasy elements, and my stuff is always going to be funny. It's hard for me to be too serious.

Q: What is Holy G Thy Angel?

Holy G Thy Angel is my next film. It's a sequel to Phallic Don Is Dead and the second film in what I'm guessing will be a four-film anthology. I'll post the trailer here soon. I'm hoping to have the trailer done in a week, maybe. I'm trying to finish the whole thing by or during September. It's very ambitious, but I'm pushing myself and learned a lot by finishing Phallic Don Is Dead. The logline is: "God, after creating the world, is trapped within a dream of being a baby. Holy G, the planet's guardian angel, struggles to recover God's degenerating form." I have some background art and stuff on my portfolio website and I'm posting all the progress on my Patreon, which has free and paid tiers.

Q: What are your views on philosophy?

I think it's useful, but ultimately pointless if it's your only focus. It's good to return to philosophy, live life, return, live, return, until you comfortably and satisfyingly live. It's good to return. Many people never engage with philosophy, or engage with it once through religion and never return.

Q: Would you describe a painting as therapeutic?

I think so, both in the act and viewing. Art and any creative outlet can be a kind of therapy.

Q: Do you feel sculpting has improved your observation skills?

Oh yes, definitely. I started doing it to help with my character turnarounds. At first it was almost a trick and replacement, but it ended up helping me understand 3D space much more effectively and how forms rotate in space. 3D space is probably still one of my weaker skills, but you should've seen what I was making before.

Q: How did you become interested in game design?

I took a class in game design using Gamemaker when I was really young at a cool program at a museum in Portland called OMSI. I was making games for awhile after that, but it corrupted my old computer at the time which dissuaded and physically stopped me from pursuing any further. Later I was volunteering at David Daniels STRATAGANZA event at Pratt, and Mason Lindroth, the creator of Hylics, was presenting. I ended up picking up a few of his tricks and being really inspired to make something. I was also getting really into the RPGMaker community and watching every available play through of Fear & Hunger and Space Funeral on Youtube.

Q: How do you feel you are affected by moving location?

I mostly grew up in Portland, OR, so it's not something brand new. I was born in Seattle and moved to Brooklyn for school and loved there for three years. I was around the Happy Valley area before in high school, which is practically Suburbia. Now I'm living closer into the city in bonafide Portland with my partner. We left a lot of our closest friends that stayed in Brooklyn which was and is crazy sad, but we of course keep in touch. I'll visit and they'll visit. But it was definitely time to leave Brooklyn. I just felt it. It feels right here.

Q: How would you describe your experiences of painting with acrylic paint? Do you set specific rules for yourself when creating your acrylic paintings to explore the world of "Phallic Don"?

I didn't buy anything myself. I just use stuff my partner doesn't need or can share. They're a fine artist, drawer, watercolor painter. All I had were pre-stretched canvasses and yellow, blue, red, and white paint. Probably sounds blasphemous to a professional painter, but it was fun and good practice. A good experience! It's good to be tactile when I'm drawing digitally a good 70% of the time. No rules, really. Some stuff in the paintings are still canon, some aren't. It helped establish a color scheme and a shape language for when I would later create all my backgrounds out of clay for Phallic Don Is Dead.

Q: What was it like working with RPGMaker for your game Holy Election, Jesus Slice! And how would you describe your process for making your game?

It's so simple and cheap! Not sponsored at all, but if you're interested in art and game design within the general structure of an RPG then check it out. It goes on sale like every week or so for 50% off or more, so wait for that!

@jackimojackimo's experience with Halloween

A weird story to stick to the theme of weird-silly-spooky-stuff: on Halloween eve a couple years ago I told my friends aloud that I “had a creepy feeling about tomorrow.” The next day (Halloween) my roommate tells me he had an intense case of sleep paralysis that night. Everything in our little townhouse felt off. We saw a shadow slowly pass behind the curtains of our back door. Four of us living there crowded around the back kitchen window to get a glimpse of, what we thought was, a would-be intruder. However, it was a gray old woman standing still on the path, facing away from us just a few feet away. We don’t think she saw us, but we also never saw her face. Eventually she slowly walked out of view. I took a really shitty, shaky video of her while trying to be sneaky and immediately empathized with all those corny UFO/Bigfoot videographers who are doing the same. I recall other weird shit happening that day, too, but all of that happened right in the morning and I can’t remember anything else.

Q: Nice! That's a really cool story! Would you say that the experience has affected your interest in horror?

Oh yeah, I love horror. One of my favorite genre's to search through and choose a random movie to watch from. I was in a somewhat-conspiratorial-paranoid stage of getting into the occult when it happened, so I assigned a lot more importance and meaning and fear into the experience. Now I think it was just a lot of crazy stuff happening somewhat coincidentally, haha.

Q: You love to make things. In what ways would one of your friends playfully make fun of that fact?

It was mores that fact that I just love stuff. He said "You're a lover. You love to love things." He's somewhat cynical himself -- not often, but oddly serious about certain inconsequential stuff -- so I think it was a playful realization that contrasted with his own views.

Q: What are the movies and shows you have hyped up? Why do you feel others aren't as passionate about them? What awesome elements from these movies and shows have you incorporated into your work?

Mostly a bunch of semi-dumb stuff that is a lot better on first viewing than second, hahaha. When Bullet Train first came out I was obsessed. I watch dit again and was like, "Yeah, I really like this, but it isn't as life-changing as I was hyping it up before." Same with a lot of pulpy, corny Sword & Sorcery movies. When I've watched something I really like I tend to really passionately recommend it as "excellent," "so fun," "you gotta see it," "you'll probably love it," etc.

Q: Do you feel it is dangerous when artists are creating something that they are not enjoying?

Yes, 100%. I think it can kill the passion, which kills the skill. Example after example of artists going "corporate," quitting their independent work, their passion projects, only doing their paid "work" work, and at the end of the day becoming incredibly unsatisfied with their practice. In almost everything I do I try to be passionate and enjoy it. It's a privilege but it's also a skill. It's important, though, because if I love all the work I make and people want to hire me to make more then I'll love doing that work, too.

Q: What do you do when you get frustrated, especially with compositing problems or bureaucratic file management? What is bureaucratic file management? It's good to hear that 95% of the time, creating brings joy and love. Loving the process is a superpower, and I know for a fact that I love your art!

Thank you! That seriously means so much to me. It's good to take a break. Sleep 5 hours instead of sleepily problem-solving for the same amount of time and making shitty work. Sleep. Get 8 hours, ideally. I would stay up until 3 or 4am working on Phallic Don, but I always made sure to either sleep in or rest or nap the next day. Your health is always more important than your art, so you can keep creating. File management is just keeping everything organized and it can be hell.

Q: Which pieces of advice has helped you the most?

For filmmaking and storytelling, the Party Rule: arrive late, and get out of there early.

For art practice, make note of: 1. Who do you want to like it? 2. Who do you want to dislike? 3. Who doesn't matter or won't care.

Thank you!

@GloomFlower - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is it like living in the Finland? Do you feel happy? Fending off marauding bands of polar bears and Soviet invasions?

Hard to contrast, obviously. While I've visited other places, I've never stayed for that long. I suppose, at the very least the state here tries to take care of everyone, I'm at the bottom rung of society and can still get treatment for my numerous ailments. Over at US I'd be dead in a ditch.

Having all four seasons, including winter with heaps of snow for now - the climate change is working on that one, winters are shorter each year - has taught me level of cynicism about the white shit covering everything that seems to often shock folks living further south.

Q: How do you feel about this place? How do you discover and what made you create an account? (Newgrounds)

Newgrounds has been on the edges of my awareness for a long time, as the place with all those funky flash videos. I joined back when Tumblr banned boobs, as part of the artist exodus, but then they withdrew the boob ban and everyone was left feeling silly.

I'm incredibly bad at community interaction of any kind, I'm exactly the kind of artist in the Sarah Andersen strip about social media presence - which handily explains my lack of audience - so it always takes me completely off-guard when the staff here frontpages some of my art every now and then.

As for how exactly I feel about the place? Well, with my aforementioned lack of community interaction, my evaluation of art sites tends to start and end with the ease of posting and viewing art, and how violently it gets compressed, so there Newgrounds scores quite high. You get to high resolution file without having to jump through hoops, and the scrunched-up previews aren't terribly compressed.

Q: How do you feel being a self-taught "bottom feeder art whore"? How did you become self-taught? What does it take to learn to create art?

Undiagnosed ADHD through childhood, elementary school and the margins of school notebooks. I taught myself a marketable skill by pure accident and dumb luck. But because I never considered art to be anything special - I just doodled and eventually got decent at it - I had no ambitions regarding it, and never considered myself that good, me getting a few dozens, at best a few hundred clicks per piece doesn't really stress me out. I've seen how some folks freak out if they get only 1000 clicks, and that seems terribly stressful.

As for what it takes to learn? Fuck I don't know, I stumbled into this ass backwards, and have no useful advice. I've known a few people who were inspired to get into, got frustrated and stopped trying, and watching the process made me a bit sad. I guess, you need, like, find some sort of joy in the process of creation, and not be discouraged by your stuff looking like shit? Beyond that, I got no clue, I still have no idea what gesture drawings even are, and have only the broadest grasp of color theory.

Q: When did you become a Mercenary artist?

As I said before, I had no ambitions regarding art, and I studied to become an engineer instead. Then got employed below my education level, and spent a decade as a grunt electrician in a job I didn't care for, but it paid the bills, so fuck it.

When the company went under around 2018, I had no idea what to do with myself, and on a whim I just tossed out the question, if the perverts on the internet would like to pay money for my doodles. And to my shock, they did! So I've been banging on the commission grind ever since.

Vast majority of my output is commissioned work, I find very little time for personal art, which leads my portfolio to be kinda all over the place. I still of course put my own spin on whatever clients ask of me, and over last couple of years, I've taken more a practice of not publishing every single piece, to keep some kind of consistency going.

Q: Your art advice, and why do you feel people shouldn't do what you do? I see your art and I think you are skilled

I learned such horribly bad habits on my own. I watch real artists publishing their recorded timelapses, and it just looks like fucking black magic to me. I spend far longer on each piece than they should take, and often the more complex color pieces can end up with 100+ layers, with raw files sometimes exceeding 1 gig in file size.

Occasionally I try to noodle around to try different techniques, and while some of them end up being useful, for the most part I fall back to my rigid lineart, flat color, shading and highlight layers setup.

Q: Why do you feel you are too open with talking about your interests to the point where you get kicked out of Discord servers?

That's the autist brain talking. I tend to be shy and quiet to start off, but if I start talking, I have no idea where the line goes, and having no idea how to do small talk, it just quickly spirals into private topics.

Add to that, my parents were huge crystal-hugging hippies in my childhood, and sex and nudity aren't much of a taboo in Finland to begin with, so my upbringing tended to be very open about sexual topics. Of course growing up I caught on how hilariously twitchy most of western media is about any sexual matters, but as a response I ended up assuming this aggressively sex-positive attitude.

Combo that all together, and when my mouth starts spewing out words, it'll either end up with me going on about flight sims, or the time at the kink club they spliced needles into audio cables, plugged those into a mixer and created on the fly weird terror noise with this masturbating girl's nerve impulses, forgetting one of these topics might be considered not safe for work.

Q: What did you think about Discord?

It's another chat interface, another in a long, long line. I've watched these things rise and fall so often I've kinda lost count. Just kinda waiting for Discord to kick the bucket for one reason or another and another one to spring up, leading to another mass exodus and more communities dispersed.

All the while I'm still on in IRC with some of my buddies.

Q: How do you feel about social media?

It's weird. It's fucking weird, y'know? My take on this is very much "an old lady yells at cloud" kind of thing, but back in Internet 1.0 days, there were community sites, but they were communities gathered around for the love of something. Which, of course, were entirely capable of being toxic, gatekeeping asshole clusters, but even those were isolated.

With modern social media, the positives of the ease of reaching anyone, is countered by the harm of the ease of reaching anyone. I don't want to condemn it, for it gives voice to the voiceless, it has been a channel for social change, but then there's the ease of spreading misinformation, the loud gaggles of angry manchildren, and the general lack of media literacy. It's all a damned mess, and I just sit quietly in my corner, posting art every now and then.

Q: When should an artist do commissions?

Fuck I don't know, when you need to make rent? I am barely making ends meet, and almost feel like I've trapped myself in this grind, but at the very least it's a grind I like doing, even with the fiftieth Final Fantasy 14 character commission in a row.

I suppose I feel, if you're financially secure, have time and energy and passion to do art, there's really no reason to start dealing with weirdos insisting you to watch a 10-hour Bionicle lore recap so you can properly capture emotion on the funky lego men.

Q: Why do you feel you're interested in drawing cyberpunk and mechs?

It comes from interest in technical stuff all the way from childhood. I like figuring out how things work, and reflecting this in my art - to an extent. Of course there's essays you can write about how mechs would and wouldn't work, and the 80s cyberpunk horror aesthetic I'm so in love with isn't exactly realistic, but there's still more space your brain can tinker in before running into the accursed suspension of disbelief.

Q: How did you become interested in drawing women?

Stone cold lesbian. I absolutely love me some tiddies. The curve of the hip, the bow of the lip, the subtle topography of a toned stomach, I adore the female form. I feel many people don't really catch how horny much of my art is, because it tends to also be dark and broody, but just give me an excuse to draw a cute armpit and I'm a happy hippo!

Q: Have you experienced the commission landscape changing over the years?

Honestly, not that much. The change I more track is how much business I get, which has been gradually rising, and certainly hasn't gone down. The rise of the atrocious AI garbage hasn't affected my business, but it seems I have lost a sect of clients asking for generic dull shit you can get out one of those machines, and, really, good riddance. Heck, if anything, the average client has had more interesting wants after the AI image generation started to become a thing.

Q: Food and drinks you enjoy

I'm not much of a food person. Just give me a cold Coke and warm takeout pizza and it's a feast.

Q: What are pieces of Media you have enjoyed?

My all-time favorite things that keep sticking with me after decades would be 1995's Ghost in the Shell, System Shock 2, and Tsutomu Nihei's manga Blame. I keep devouring new stuff all the time, with fresh subjects of obsession coming and going. More recently stuff that has stuck with me would be Signalis, Nier Automata (that stupid horny stabby game actually helped me deal with old trauma, and subsequently 2B has become the totem of buried grief in my confused emotional pantheon), and the book series The Expanse - the TV show of which was okay, but with a severe case of The Book Was Better, So, So Much Better.

The connecting tissue thorough all of this seems to be, melancholic, somewhat philosophical approach to science fiction, with certain horror edge. Which, yeah, sounds like me. Also, lesbians.

@Huix - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How do you decide on the name: Huix? And how do you feel about usernames in general what do they communicate and why do people pick their specific usernames

Well my name “Huix” came from thinking something simple and short to remember, it was a fleeting thought that fit perfectly with what I wanted. Funny thing is that it was my first choice, but I wasn't sure so I kept telling myself “bro it's impossible to like the first choice, IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!” 

About user names in general, I think it's great, I always like to hear why they chose it. Everyone has a story to tell about it and I find it very interesting.

Q: How do you decide on making your account here? And what has your experience has been?

I decided to open an account here because I already knew the site and saw many users very satisfied with it.

My experience was great, I love the camaraderie here, I love the way people support each other's projects.

Q: How do you feel about art? Why do you feel you got interested in creating art?

I think it's awesome. It's something where people can express themselves or make tributes to things they love in a great way.

I think I became interested in art because of the series and things I read in my childhood, I know, it sounds cliché and very corny jejeje

Q: How do you decide on which character to draw?

The decision of which character I'm going to draw is a weird one, because it could be because of something that appeared in my feed or because of memories of things I liked.

Q: Is yellow your favorite color?

Yep, that's why all my pages have some of that color on them

I also like green a lot :p

Q: What are your inspirations?

My inspirations are the things I have seen in my childhood and the artists I follow.

Q: Why do you refer to Twitter as SHIT?

I refer to Twitter that way because of how toxic it can be at times and the bots.

Q: What is Artfight and Toyhouse about? And what is the culture like?

Artfight is about “attacking” by drawing another person's character and the opponent has to do the same.

Toyhouse is a site where you can upload characters, exchange them or sell them.

The culture there is quite good, there are some things I don't like, but in general everything is fine.

Q: What are other activities and hobbies you do? And do you feel they impact your art

I don't have many other hobbies besides drawing, but the few that I do have don't affect my art much

Q: Advice you wish you knew earlier

“Don't be obsessed with comparing yourself with others”

it's okey to compare yourself with other artists to know that you can improve, but in a healthy way 

Q: What are the things that you dislike about Toyhouse?

Maybe some character designs that sell, but I think those are more relative.

Q: What are some media that you enjoy? And why do you enjoy the media, what are the specific elements that you like to see in media?

I think the ones I use most are twitter and ng, because I find them quite entertaining and I like to upload things there.

Usually what I see most is other people's art and the latest on some news that interests me.

Q: What do you like to do when you are outside?

I usually like to hang out with friends and goof around, the classic

Q: Food and drinks you enjoy

On the food side, the "asado" is the best in the world.

As for drinks, water is the top tier.

@DeeDotNG - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What does it mean to create art? How did you get interested in it?

I actually got into making art way later than a lot of my peers! I was about seventeen before I started to draw in any sort of artstyle. Before I decided I wanted to study art I was actually planning to go to college for architecture! bahaha, looking back that seems like such a bad fit, but making art as a job wasn't even a possibility in my head at the time!

As for what it means to create? that's a tough one to answer. For me I'd say it's exploring new ideas and improving my skills, What drew me in to art is that progress is so tangible and there's always something new to try and explore or improve upon. ...this way of thinking is probably the reason I can't hold down a consistent artstyle bahaha 😄

Q: How is it like living in Ireland?

Ireland is great!! I am NOT built for hot countries so the weather here is perfect for me! It rains loads but I find it relaxing. I am terrified of storms though, even if they don't happen super often.

Art wise as well there are so many awesome and cool creatives here! Brobexx and CigarDoesArt are my personal faves. Don't know if they're on newgrounds but their art rocks!

There's also a ton of animation studios here that are amazing, Boulder Media worked on Wander over Yonder, Gumball and a ton of other shows. And then there's Studio Meala who worked on a bunch of Cas van de Pols videos! Meala also has a bunch of shorts on their yt channel they are so much fun to watch (I hear they also worked on a show about a little girl who punches things ). There's like a billion other studios here as well, it's super inspiring!

Q: What was it like being at the NG Dublin meet 2024?

Dublin meetup rocked! It was my first time ever meeting people from online in real life! Everyone was drawing in sketchbooks, we had a bunch of NG cartoons playing at the bar and there was a bunch of old arcade games! Had so many chats with lovely people so I'd say it was pretty great!!

Q: Are you inspired by anime? And what do you enjoy about anime?

I am totally inspired by anime and manga! Which is weird because as a kid, I got it drilled into me that watching anime made you a weirdo.

I obviously got over that eventually bahaha. I watched evangelion when I was 16 and got absolutely hooked!! Once I started college I really got into reading chainsaw man and from there it spiraled into me watching everything I heard good things about, I love getting reccomendations!

My favourite stuff I've watched recently is Ghost in the shell, Paranoia agent and Eizouken!! As for what I enjoy about it? It's kinda everything, art and animation are just my favourite thing to explore creatively.

Q: What do you feel are the differences working with 2D animation and 3D animation?

The principals of animation are pretty much the same and all, but when it comes to the more art direction-ey kind of stuff, like stylisation its just a completely different skillset

You can simulate a lot of stuff with the computer in 3D, like physics, textures and lighting. It can even do some in-betweening if you want it to. Which is both like super cool and pretty dangerous cuz its very easy to get lazy with it.

I personally find them both fun!! But fine tuning stuff in 2D, you have all the control to get it looking exactly how you want. Where in 3D, fixing the little things can take FOREVER.

Q: What are the qualities immediately you enjoy? And what makes them good?

In relation to art and animation? I love some good colours and shading, it's something that doesn't come very naturally to me so I love seeing it done well.

Q: Your profile picture is very creative, with the hair and hand seemingly coming out of the frame. How did you get inspired to create a profile picture like that?

Im just super creative what can I say? ¯⁠⁠⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠⁠/⁠¯ (I stole the idea from Bacun) But the character is in fact mine! That's Dot, as in the second half of my username!

Q: What are you most proud of learning?

I'm proud of learning everything I have so far! I started doing digital art just under a year ago and I'm super happy with my progress.

If I were to just pick one thing is would probably be my line quality! Everything in my old sketchbooks looks like chickenscratch cause I had zero confidence in my linework. It's a super hard habit to break when you've been doing it for so long, but now everything's (mostly) nice and clean 🙂

Q: What is it like being in college? What do they teach you?

To be honest not much, I'm given assignments to do and the tools to do them, but as far as learning goes, I'm 99% teaching myself here.

Like I'll go into class and the lecturer will just put on an hour of tutorial videos they found on YouTube lol.

Luckily I'm pretty good at teaching myself 😛

Q: What does it mean to be happy?

Always try and do something new. Staying stagnant and doing familiar stuff excessively can make it feel like youre stuck in life. Experiencing new things is like a system reboot and keeps everything moving.

Also talk to people! Make gifts, do activities together in person or online! Help them when they need it and they'll help you back. Just be careful and make sure you're with a good crowd, there are some people who'll take advantage. But trust me it's worth it

And finally, follow ya dreams! ᕙ⁠(⁠＠⁠°⁠▽⁠°⁠＠⁠)⁠ᕗ

@Bundeluxe - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What does it mean to be an artist?

A: In my eyes, it just means creating something for the sake of fulfilling some specific creative ambition. Painters, musicians, writers, people who make 5 hour long video essays on their favorite TV show, people who make low-effort

memes, etc. All artists in their own way. Everyone has their own definition for it, though, and I don't think mine is objectively correct.

Q: Your experiences of creating art and what have you learned about yourself?

A: My experience creating art has been a mostly confusing one. Only recently did I figure out what I actually wanted to do with it, which is comic art. Before that, I was kind of floating around between "maybe games maybe comics maybe

animation uhhh" and never had a clear focus, which may have also hindered my progress.

However, I did learn that I, too, can get things done if I just put my mind to it. I'm not a perfect flawless artist right now or anything, but I am currently at a level I couldn't even IMAGINE I'd ever be at 10 years ago. So if there's

any specific lesson I can take away from this, it's that I'm not exactly a quick learner - but I am still a learner. Maybe there are other things I could (slowly) learn to do, that seem impossible to me right now.

Q: What does it take to grow as an artist?

A: Growing as an artist is a mix between being stubborn enough not to quit after multiple failures, but also not so stubborn that you ignore the fundamentals you need to work on before you can git gud. I don't think I started making any

notable improvements until I finally started practicing gesture drawing in 2017 after watching a few Proko videos. Until that point, it was five or six years of me trying to make futile things work and never understanding why they

wouldn't, as well as never properly listening to advice and critiques.

Like I mentioned earlier, I think it also definitely helps to have a clear goal to focus on. What do you actually want to make? You should always learn the fundamentals regardless, but having a clear idea of where you want to go

with your work is a good thing as well.

Q: What are the biggest hurdles you feel artists deal with when creating art?

A: Three big ones, mainly.

1. Time: Too many people simply do not have the time on their hands to make what they want to make, as often as they want to make it. I think it's a big reason why a lot of artists want to do some kind of art for a living, because (aside

from winning the lottery or something) it's the only way to keep making money AND making art often. However...

2. Motivation: At some point, you just burn out. At the beginning stages of learning, it's easy to lose hope and put down the pencil because you feel like you're never going to actually get better. Pretty often, your ambitions and goals

will be beyond your current skillset and it can be hard to stay motivated when you can't live up to your own desired standards. But even when you're past that, you just won't always be in the mood to make art. But sometimes, even when

you do feel ready to go...

3. Physical: Artists who get in "the zone" tend to forget to take breaks or just neglect them, which can lead to all sorts of bodily issues. Back pain and wrist pain are probably the most common.

Q: Do you feel it is a skill to be able to appreciate art?

A: That depends, really. "Appreciating art" is a pretty loose concept and the answer to this question will probably vary from person to person. For example, a guy could be watching a satirical comedy and completely miss the social

commentary and themes, but still genuinely laugh at the jokes. I'd say that this hypothetical guy still appreciated the art just fine, even if it wasn't in the "intended" way.

Q: The story of how you created your account, and why?

A: Honestly, I don't remember at all! Looking at the dates, I created my account during the infamous "Tumblr Exodus" but I didn't even have a tumblr account at the time. My only active platform at the moment was Twitter and I think I

just saw a bunch of people migrate to NG and thought "yeah sure I could do that too". Whatever the reason was, I'm glad I did, because it's currently the only platform I'm active on.

I have been on Newgrounds long before that but without an account, somewhere in the mid-2000s. My brother showed me Weebl's Badgers video along with a couple of dumb Mario animations and I LOVED it.

Q: Your experiences with the community here

A: Pretty much only positive. I find it funny that NG is still seen as an internet boogeyman in some circles, because I can't see why anyone would look at current NG and think that. I know this community has had more "rowdy" days but

it's legitimately one of the chillest communities online in its current state. Last year I also finally started actively posting on the BBS and I gotta say I've really missed that "online small town" feeling of browsing a forum where

you can recognize most regular posters. I also love how many collabs, contests and events take place here, there's always something cool to look forward to.

Q: Your advice on using the Internet, where do you feel people go wrong using it?

A: Where people go wrong using the internet? A LOT of ways, too many to name. But mainly, I think people could use less scrolling in their lives, as well as the ability to just walk away from dumbass arguments every now and then.

For artists, the first one is important because too much scrolling through other people's cool art can really demotivate you. That's not the case for everyone but if you recognize yourself in this, I highly recommend that you make

rules for yourself about what you're allowed to see and look at before you get to work/while you're taking breaks. Overloading your brain with a bunch of high quality concept art and then being hit with the reality that you can't

replicate that level of quality (yet) is a great way to lose your drive instantly. Browse responsibly, please.

The second one is important for everyone ever. When you're on your deathbed, you're not going to think "if...if only I had argued on the internet a few more times..."

Q: What is it like to live in The Netherlands?

A: Pretty good, actually! Weather's never consistently good but I legitimately love it here and don't see myself leaving anytime soon. My favorite part by far has to be the cycling infrastructure. You can easily travel small/mid-sized distances that are just slightly too long to walk, and not only is it far cheaper than a car, but it's also free exercise any time you need to go anywhere. Aside from the very reasonable healthcare, this is the main reason why I can't

ever see myself living in most other places. I got that Dutch cyclist blood in me.

Q: What makes a good Newgrounds member from your perspective?

A: I don't really think I would be a good authority on that sort of thing. If I had to give an answer, it'd be something simple like "someone who enjoys being here". I think both the people who create and the people who enjoy said

creations greatly contribute to the atmosphere of the site.

Q: Is there a joke that generally makes you laugh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0TEvK-mjlg

@Jaqbix - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How did you get interested in creating art? What do you look for when you are creating a character?

A: I started with drawing robots! Then some Terraria sprites aaaaand... then my boyfriend made me a fursona! (which made me draw it a lot) Honestly I just love designing all sorts of things, which I do the most probably... Speaking of which, when designing characters I go mostly off my current mood and try to make something appealing.

Q: What was the process for you to become good at creating art?

A: Practice, atlhough I feel like my biggest improvement was always happening after a break from art, ironically. It's mostly taking inspiration and learning from analyzing both artworks and real life.

Q: How did you discover NG? And how did you decide on creating an account?

A: Through an artist I know from a different site sharing that they have an account here, so I thought I'd also give it a shot too!

Q: What is it like to use Tumblr in 2024?

A: It's real cool honestly, compared to Twitter, you can see Tumblr pushing your art to peeps who actually would enjoy it, so the feeback's always nice to see there.

Q: What is some music that you like to listen to?

A: What a fun question :3c I am big fan of japanese/japanese-inspired rock/pop, quite a big fan vocaloid too, I'd say Nilfruits would be my favourite producer, but a lot of them are great.

Q: Games you have enjoyed playing

A: Some classics like the Portal series, or Night in the Woods and the games I spent too much time on, like Terraria and Warframe (both games let you use multiple fun weapons, so there might be something with that).

Q: What are your experiences of living in Poland?

A: It's veeeeery chill here =w= Honestly I don't think it's much different from most places nowdays, because of the globalization, but I can't imagine myself living anywhere else, so I suppose that's a good thing, even if the country does have quite a bit of problems too

@TeffyD - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How did you discover the NG and why did you make your account? What do you feel what were your expectations?

I found out about NG around 2006, when a 6yo me was trying to find things to do other than browse funnyjunk.

I made an account because I reheard about NG and figured why not. My expectations were that I wouldn't do anything. It’s very easy compare yourself to others and I just assumed I had started way too late.

Q: What makes a community good?

Support, and non-fanaticism. Communities tend to have this problem of making a para-social infatuation to certain things, and it’s best to remember we’re all human, not perfect gods.

Q: How did you get into creating illustrations? Is Krita a good program?

I got into drawing because I was ADD riddled in school and liked doing it, although I barely draw now. I made an album in Nov 2022 called Greatest Hits. I needed to make cover art for it and saw Krita was cool, free, and easy to use.

Q: How would you describe the community here? 

Human. If you see youtube, twitter, hell SoundCloud, what community do you even see? Bot accounts asking for u to get scammed. NG feels like actual human beings are responding and having fun.

Q: How do you feel about doing collabs? And what the NGAP Collab Center

Love doing collabs, I usually tend to do everything myself, but it’s just fun asking fellow creators if they wanna help or vice versa.

NGAP Collab Center are cool dudes, very helpful and fun to hang out with.

Q: Your musical inspirations

Early Sims game music, SimCity 4, Sims 1, etc. J-pop fusion, Nu-metal, Racing game soundtracks from the 00s.

Q: What did you like about doing your NG Mall Music Collab?

I loved the variety, how many different ideas came about from just the term “mall music”, it was really cool to see how other people view it.

Q: Your advice for creating music

If I could restart with the knowledge Ive gained, is

1.) MAKE TEMPLATES, for each of the genres you do, the synth patches you make, the drum machine you may use etc.

2.) LEARN MIXING, In my own personal opinion, you can be the best in music theory but if it sounds like ass it doesn't matter.

and 3.) GAIN STAGE, the secret to a great sound is the RECORDING of that sound, if half of your mix is just fixing the recording, you need to re-record.

Q: What are your hobbies and activities you typically don't talk about?

I am enamored with cars, how they work, design, and sound. I love Tornadoes and weather like that. I like playing Euro Truck Sim 2, so if you have multiplayer maybe we can convoy or something.

Q: Your favourite foods, and why?

Pizza, plenty of variety

Tacos, perfect

Sausage and Peppers, awe-struck.

Q: What does it mean when a community is non-fanatic? And why is it positive?

If you remember the height of the Rick and Morty fandom, it was pure insanity. You couldn't escape it. It was the same with Undertale too for a little bit. It's all good to just love a piece of media, but if you're spamming it, holding people to a god-like pedestal, harass people for not liking it, it becomes a problem. There is a small guy in the back of my head that Smiling Friends will fall into the same fate.

I'm also probably just a massive hater, lol, I think I heard Megalovania so much its become a PTSD trigger. There was this time when music memes were super popular and they would ALWAYS. WITHOUT FAIL, PLAY THE FIRST PART OF THAT SONG, STOP IT.

Q: How would you describe your experiences with ADD? Do you feel misunderstood by people?

I was never fully diagnosed, but it was very evident to me and my parents. I never focused, jumped around from hobby to hobby, get hyper-fixated on something just to immediately drop it, never had a single plan or goal of what I wanted to do in life, annoying. I don't think I was misunderstood as much as just "you just need to apply yourself!", which I would if I could.

Q: How did you decide on using Cakewalk by Bandlab? And what do you like about the VSTs that you use

Things I Use:

-Ibanez RG and Gio

-Tanara Bass

-Alesis V61

Software:

-Cakewalk by Bandlab

-Superior Drummer 3

-NeuralDSP Amp Sims

-Pianoteq

-Kontakt and other NI stuff

-Lounge Lizard EP4

-SWAM Instruments

I got Cakewalk because it was free. I was originally only using audacity and iphone garageband, pure misery.

As for the VSTs, Superior Drummer 3 was probably the best purchase ive ever done, it can become a sampler, made techno to dnb samples to funk to brush drums, plenty of add-ons and support too. it is expensive and large but well worth it, NeuralDSP is the best bang for buck for amp sims. They go on sale all the time, I personally use Cory Wong, Petrucci, Abasi, and Gojira. Guitar Rig 6 is also great. Pianoteq is probably also the best Piano sim next to Kontakt. Great sound and like hundreds of pianos to get. Lounge Lizard is also the best next to kontakt for Electric Pianos. Lush to 70s prog rock, great sounds. SWAM make libraries from brass to strings, I use the Saxophone library. its VERY in depth, and you can make some great sax leads with it, like in my song "Jazz Time". Last but certainly not least, what is there to say about Kontakt that hasn't been said. Actual terabytes of free and non-free libraries from cinematic percussion to hotel lobby bells, another great "bite the bullet" purchase.

I should also add the importance of PLUGINS not just VSTs. I use Waves plugins a lot, I got a bunch of them for cheap on a Black Friday sale. F6 EQ, SSL compressor, L1 Limiter, iZotope Ozone, etc.

Q: The education material you would recommend for making music

For mixing:

-The Art of Mixing by David Gibson, the best all-in-one video on every topic about mixing and recording. It's old and VERY corny, but 1000% worth it.

-Mixing the Midrange and Low End, helped me understand I was cutting too much out of tracks, and boosting the low too much, and also where common troublemaker frequency ranges are. For most beginners, its these areas that ruin a mix the most, because they're harder to discern with headphones either simulating fake bass boost, and you cant hear them as well as highs on monitors (unless you have a sub)

For synth making/music making:

-Jazen Tutorials on Vital, great tutorials on making every kind of patch using Vital, another amazing vst that is free. It helps because you can sort of reverse engineer them to find your own patches for your tracks.

-How to make SICK House Drum Beats, guy makes funny videos and area also helpful at knowing where to start. There are plenty of royalty free drum samples on the internet. I use Sitala to make drums like this, it's free and easy to use.

-3 Levels of Melodies, good tutorial on making coherant tracks, or help your melodies flow better and sound more natural.

To spare this being unbearably long Ill stop here, the recommended videos for these videos are just as good.

Q: What did you like to do when you are playing Sims?

85% of the time would just be building houses and enjoying the soundtracks.

Q: Do you have a playlist of music you would like to share?

I don't think I have one. I was listening to this recently so ill share it.

Q: Food and drinks that you like

Other than the previous answers for food, I like Diet Dr Pepper, those vitamin waters in a square bottle, and just plain ol' water.

Q: What do you like to do when you go outside?

Usually swim, window shop, or clean my car. I also love going to Goodwill and seeing what new stuff they have. I got an Atari 2600 for $20 one time.

@Thetageist - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is the purpose of being online?

I find that the more people you can communicate with, the more perspectives you have on life. Online, you can speak to people from all around the world. I have international friends as close as Canada and Mexico, as far away as Russia and Japan, and many places in between. And if I threw all my online friends into the same chatroom together, it would be a disaster. While taking in so many different opinions and ideas is a bit overwhelming, it’s also beautiful in a way, because only by listening to others do I learn more about what I’m missing. I think everyone I’ve interacted with has altered the course of my life in some way, even if the interaction didn’t go as I wanted.

Another benefit to being online is being able to socialize with people who understand me better. I have ADHD and autism, and was considered a “gifted kid” up until the end of high school. When I was pretty young, other kids didn’t even pretend they wanted to try to understand me, so I was left at disadvantage for getting along with anyone, aside from the other weirdos like me who I befriended occasionally over the years. That struggle is an experience that a lot of people share, and so all the weirdos of the world have flocked together online, making it easier to find each other. That’s a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, namely because there’s a lot of different kinds of weird and not all of them are healthy or compatible with each other.

Q: Which effect do you feel the Internet has had on you? And why

Been a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s given me a place where I don’t feel so weird and awkward; on the other, I’ve consistently run into more trouble online than in real life, and those have been things I needed to navigate socially and emotionally.

It’s a blessing and a curse that we have access to “a little bit of everything, all of the time”. On one hand, it can grant a great deal of of knowledge and access to new opportunities, but on the other, the information overload can really mess with anyone who gets it. On top of that, a lot of the time it’s hard to discern what people, content, and groups are going to actually be good for you until you’re in the thick of it.

Q: The story of how you made your account on 8/11/18 and why?

Once upon a time, I got really sick of Scratch. I was a teenager plagued with self-esteem issues, and being around a bunch of mostly younger kids who could easily turn toxic for all sorts of petty reasons wasn’t helping.

At the time, my dream was to be an indie game developer, so I had no idea where else I could post games, until one afternoon that I remember clearly. I was on a trip, sitting on a hotel bed and watching Markiplier. He mentioned Newgrounds offhandedly as the origin of one of the games he was playing (Spewer, to be specific), and I immediately knew that was my answer.

Because I also dabble in everything else under the sun, I thought I was going to have a social media account for every format of stuff I made - Wattpad for stories, DeviantArt for art, YouTube for animations and let’s plays and devlogs and whatever else, and NG for games. But Newgrounds has a space for 99% of those things. So I really haven’t needed accounts for a lot of other things, and over time I’ve branched out into every portal on this website! (I still have a very eclectic YouTube channel, though - go check it out.)

Q: The story of your username: Thetageist

First of all, everyone, it’s pronounced Theta-geist. Greek letter Theta, geist as in poltergeist. Not the-tag-ist. Lol.

Actually, shortly after I got Supporter for the first time, I made a post about wanting to change my username. I deleted that post later, but this is the gist: I felt like I’d outgrown my old username “EscapistProductions”. It was even starting to make me uncomfortable, because I had just started to realize how much I used escapism - daydreaming, over-immersion into fandom, etc - to avoid the problems that were facing me in the real world. I didn’t want to be creating productions for people who reject reality entirely, and that’s what that username sounded like to me at the time. (It also has twice as many syllables as Thetageist, so I’d say I’m much easier to mention now.)

The next problem facing me was what to change it to. I had seen the Beetlejuice musical recently, and that was the tipping point for finally accepting myself as someone who likes horror (an interest I’d invalidated myself for for several years), so I wanted something to reflect that. I also took inspiration from the character’s name alternately being spelled Betelgeuse, like the star, and decided to make a reference to a star to also include my enjoyment of sci-fi and space themes.

I initially looked for other star names in the constellation of Orion, such as Cursa, Rigel, and Saiph. Those were taken, and I didn’t know yet that I could steal usernames from dead accounts. I noticed that some stars in the constellation had no names and were just designated by a Greek letter - including θ (Theta) Orionis, which also became the full name of my space-ghost persona.

The reason my username isn’t just “Theta” is because it felt like something was missing and didn’t clearly refer to horror. I also wanted a syllable pattern similar to the inspiration - if someone says “Thetageist Thetageist Thetageist”, the reference is pretty clear (and they can also summon me >:D)

For a while, I also kept the “Cass Kingside” moniker I’d used as EscapistProductions, because Cass is a nice name and I’d been signing off all my posts and PMs that way for years. (No, I had no idea who Cassandra from Pico’s School was when I came up with that pseudonym - it was actually a chess pun on “castle kingside”.) The more people have called me Theta, the more I’ve been phasing it out, though.

Q: What is your Newgrounds profile picture?

Well, I changed it after starting to answer these questions, haha.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know what exactly the old Thetageist logo was. It was a modification of the EscapistProductions logo, which was meant to be a heavily stylized, sci-fi inspired luna moth. The shape was also intended to suggest a crescent moon and either a C (for Cass) or an E (for EscapistProductions). It’s still there as a signature on some of my older art.

When I changed my username, at first I was out of ideas for a new logo, so I just edited my old one. I got rid of the outer hexagon, rotated the moon shape to be vertical because I thought that’d look a bit more ghost-like, replaced the wing tails with a lowercase theta θ, and made it pale green and purple to suggest a spooky look. It really doesn’t mean anything, I just kinda never made a better one until now.

Q: Your experience with Halloween

I’m an October baby (my birthday is the 17th), so it’s been there from the beginning, I’d say. As a kid I dreamed of having fun, elaborate costume parties for Halloween, but instead, some of my birthday parties celebrated both, and my friends would show up in costume for it.

At that age, however, I was very easily scared, and so I did not cope well when I brushed with the scarier parts of the holiday. I have very clear memories of specific incidents that involved decorations with motion sensors and other disturbances. Over the years, that fear became fascination, and then genuine appreciation. I fell in love with horror in a controlled or academic environment, such as watching Youtubers play scary games or making creepy stuff myself. But I’ll tell you the truth: In real life, I still get irrationally anxious around decorations that I think are going to move if I step in front of them, and I sidestep around their line of sight like a coward.

Overall, what Halloween has always been to me is a celebration of creativity. Putting together costumes and decorating a house are just the minimum - some have even more elaborate traditions, such as turning their house into a haunted attraction for the night or making a scary home movie. The goal of creating something scary to spook the neighborhood kids brings out the creativity in so many people who wouldn’t otherwise think they have it. I myself haven’t worn a store-bought costume in years - usually I scope out pieces of clothing and accessories individually from thrift stores, costume shops, and the like. And that’s good, too, because do you know how expensive a licensed Beetlejuice costume is?!

Q: How did you decide on making art and music? Do you feel that the skill sets overlap?

Both of these hobbies have always been with me. My parents bought me sketchbooks when I was pretty young, and I learned the basics of music through some funny edutainment software.

Both of these creative endeavors have a similar question that always needs to be asked: that of the balance between self-expression and common practice. Ideally, the role of learning is to open the doors to even more effective expression by using common practice and techniques to improve attempts at communication. 

However, we aren’t robots, and everyone has different factors that might impact the path they take to improvement. Sometimes I wonder if being an artist since childhood holds me back - I’ve gotten so entrenched in old art habits that I find it a lot harder to change my style or technique than someone who started as an adult might.

Q: Your experience of posting in the BBS?/What do you think about the community?

Every online community is going to have their own social standards and expectations. Some places are very laissez-faire with what their members discuss and do there; others are more vigilant, sometimes hypervigilant, about trying to keep people safe. Everyone has a sweet spot on that continuum, and mine is NG.

However, in every online community, even the most lawless places, community members are going to start to care about each other if they’ve stuck around enough to form those bonds.

That’s why I love it here; for the most part, we are all one community, not several communities that get into alliances and wars against each other (ahem, Twitter). There are some rifts that may happen, sure, but there is no tribalism, no in-group or out-group, nobody using the site who is actively shunned across the board. As far as I know, at least - you’d have to tell me if I’m wrong.

Q: Your advice on what makes a good community member

To be a good Newgrounds user, your main concern is rolling with the punches. People are always going to give you responses you don’t expect, so you need to learn to be resilient and bounce back from pretty much anything. This includes the really negative responses that some people will give for varying reasons. Learn to be at peace with them. Throwing a tantrum is just going to get you laughed out of the room, and getting super-anxious is going to wear you out.

Another important tenet is understanding that not everything you do is going to succeed, and building up anything positive is going to take time, especially honing a skill or gathering a following. NG’s activity is purely organic - there are no bots that automatically like all your posts. Sometimes you might not get as much engagement as you normally would, or any at all. Many times that’s just due to forces outside of your control, and other times it was that one bad idea we all have sometimes. That’s normal. Keep your head up.

There’s probably more I could think of, but these are probably the biggest things that allow someone to prosper here.

Q: Is art communication?

Most definitely. Even if the message is something as simple as “I really like this other thing, here’s how much I appreciate it,” it’s still saying something - a statement about the creator, a request to the audience, or some other reason why it was created. Hell, a lot of times, art, music, and storytelling - anything with a layer of fiction - is easier to communicate through than exact words.

The question that can be asked next, then, is whether every piece of media is art and/or communication. Part of me wants to say that “bad” messages or ones that are sent without much thought to them aren’t “real communication”. Is AI generated content communicating anything, for example? But if every piece of art has a reason why it was created, then these are communicating too, even if the messages are less meaningful or personal. (In the case of AI content, the LLM itself will accidentally communicate some of its own “beliefs” and biases too!)

I think it’s therefore important to think critically about what a creator is communicating with a piece, both intentionally and not. Some messages in media just don’t get widely challenged because audiences are too focused on power fantasy, sexual appeal, or some other flashy aspect that distracts them. Of course, we’re allowed to like media and characters that send questionable messages (I know I do), and we don’t have to always take everything extremely seriously or look at it through a critical eye. That gets tiring. But whenever we can, it’s good to just talk about what we’ve picked up from the media we consume, and assess whether they’re healthy for us and others.

I personally had a revelation about myself recently, about my formative years where I was surrounded by fiction and didn’t have a lot of positive social interactions. That life gave me a subconscious belief that there’s some kind of inherent hierarchy of people, based on how much good they have happening to them or how they otherwise resemble a “main character”. It fueled a lifelong habit of considering myself unimportant, and a bitter jealousy towards other people and even fictional characters who seemed to have it better. That was the real reason I developed such a hangup about attractive cartoon characters. I bet that’s true across the board. The people who care the most about fiction are the ones who didn’t get a chance at emotional fulfillment in real life.

Q: Are all choices fundamentally trade-offs?

Uuuuhhhhhhh. Wow, that’s deep.

I think I’m actually inclined to say no, because not all choices involve things of equal value being gained or lost. This is especially the case with taking ultimately necessary risks, such as separating yourself from toxic environments or just standing up for yourself in general. The benefit of staying in your comfort zone by doing nothing is not equal to the benefit you get by resolving an issue that has a significant impact on your life and health. Conversely, the temporary pain of getting into a fight with someone is not equal to the hell you may be living in thanks to them.

So if you need someone to tell you to get away from those friends who don’t really respect you, or apply for that new job and put in your two weeks’ notice at the old one, or start making plans to move out of that pit of despair you grew up in… do it for me.

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“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller

@Tyhond - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is your perspective on positivity? 

// I love being positive! =3

Q: How would you describe your experiences with the Internet? 

// Very positive! ^-^ It's very enjoyable being on the internet.

Q: The story of how you created you account on 1/14/19 and the origin of the name: Tyhond 

// Just needed a place to archive and start my art journey online. Tyhond is my Name minus 2 letters :P

Q: What do you think about drawing? What do you think make you improve at art? 

// I want to improve at making backgrounds! :D

Q: What do you think makes an interesting character? 

// Their personality and experience. Appearance also shapes the character too.

Q: Have your perspective what makes good art? 

// Art is subjective :) Everyone have their own taste.

Q: Your thoughts on games, what do they represent? 

// Games are enjoyment. People play game to have fun ^^

Q: How did you get interested in making music? 

// I listen to a lot of music when I do art. I thought of making music of my own! :D

Q: How did you decide on making comments? What does it mean to spread positivity? 

// I like to go around and give people some attention and positivity. Many people don't get a chance to have any engagement so some people would like a bit of attention :3

Q: Have you ever gotten criticism for making so many comments? 

// A few times actually! Usually people think it's annoying, lame, or just negative about it. Some people think I'm a bot too xD

Q: How did you get a Gold Whistle? 

// Being in the Art Portal, I do see people posting non-art, wrong rating, or something bad and I would report them. The more you report, the more whistle level you get.

Q: What does it mean? And how did you get to Sup. Commander 

// I go to the Movie Section and rate there daily :)

Q: How do you describe your experience with the Newgrounds community? 

// I made a lot of friends and a whole community here! ^-^

Q: Your advice on being part of a community 

// Just stay positive and avoid big conflict.