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Arasteia In reply to ??? [2017-08-01 21:41:48 +0000 UTC]

Thanks very much I'm glad to hear that! ^^

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Arasteia In reply to beautyliesintheeye [2017-02-03 00:57:43 +0000 UTC]

They are indeed! I'm really glad you like it, and that you see so much in it ^^ Thank you so much for your kind and well-thought-out words c: 

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Arasteia In reply to Vault-TecEmployee [2017-01-14 21:21:05 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! ^^ And aaa thank you, I always work hard on the backstories

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Arasteia In reply to JiMeiLofgren [2016-08-03 06:40:34 +0000 UTC]

Awesome! I'm glad to hear that! ^^ Thank you! 

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Arasteia In reply to lydia-san [2016-01-12 11:29:22 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much My style has changed a lot since this haha XD Yeah, I never really noticed my colours have muted but they have! 

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lydia-san In reply to Arasteia [2016-01-13 16:54:48 +0000 UTC]

Lol yeah. In some pictures (like the Marcilyn pict) I think mute colors give certain effects, like strength, classic/vintage/eerie feels, but sometimes can make a picture looks dull. Well, it depends, I still think if would be best to use both style to produce the effect you want

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Arasteia In reply to lydia-san [2016-01-13 23:06:46 +0000 UTC]

Yep, I think I'll alternate between the two until I find my own style Each has its place, as you say. 

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lydia-san In reply to Arasteia [2016-01-14 18:00:52 +0000 UTC]

Hehehe right good luck then^^

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-25 20:40:57 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much! Realism is really hard, I have to strive to get my work coming out looking realistic! Thank you, I always like to give them background stories because I'm a writer XD Oh no! That's awful! My computer doesn't have the best graphics, but it runs it. Still, maybe one day? 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-25 22:01:45 +0000 UTC]

No problem. I would say you have a lot of dedication and skill at it. Yeah I'm using my back up graphics card from my old computer, and it doesn't run skyrim that well... (though it can run oblivion and morrowind and sims 4 just fine) Before then, I had a super awesome graphics card, but it burnt up on me. But yeah, maybe one day~ I'm sure I'll get a new one at sometime, and *hopefully* it will fix my computer issues all together. We'll see.

On a lighter note: you write too? I would love to see a story from you at some point. I love to write, but I've never thought of coming up with skyrim stories for my characters before (probably because I'm so used to cartoonifying them and making them after my book characters~ ) Maybe one day I'll get serious and just make a skyrim character with a good plot for a story and a few good mods.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-25 22:12:12 +0000 UTC]

I definitely have dedication, not sure about skill so much, but the dedication is definitely there! XD Oh, yeah, my computer is fairly new (although it's actually supposed to be awful for games. I didn't know that til after I bought it). I've heard of a few people whose graphics cards have burnt up. You'd think with all your great technology nowadays we could at least make graphics cards that work. 
Hopefully it will. Skyrim is too amazing to miss
Yeah, I write as well. Actually, I wrote seriously a long time before I drew seriously (not hard, since I only drew seriously a few months back). And I started drawing seriously partly so I could draw my characters. I've got my novel coming up, so yeah, once it's a bit more polished (and finished, haha, I'm building to the climax) I'll put some chapters up. 
All seven of my Skyrim characters have backstories XD It was never something I thought about until I was on about my third character, and I started wondering why she was such an awful person. Their stories all came from there.  

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-25 22:36:41 +0000 UTC]

The skill is definitely there, I can tell~ I think you do overwhelmingly good at realism, and you're eager to learn, and those are very good qualities to have as an artist.

I think I had one too many bells and whistles on my game. I used to have really awesome graphics, and they were so fun to play the game in. But because my graphic card burned up, I had to rethink fancy graphics and knick knacks. In a way, it got me more focused on my writing.

I've been taking writing a lot more seriously lately as well, I've been studying a lot of writing books and trying hard to improve my skill. The story I am currently posting on here is nothing compared to the way I write now. Just in the time spent writing that story, I learned so much about what it takes to be a good writer.

Skyrim is amazing~ I loved playing it when I had the chance. I tried to play as earnestly as I could (I shiver at the days I was 14 and played oblivion with a bunch of anime mods and cheated to make my characters more powerful. XD ) and my game was so beautiful, I became so immersed in it's surroundings. Now a days I'm playing Sims 4 when I get the chance (a totally different game). Fun game, but I miss Skyrim.

I can't wait~ It'll be awesome.

That sounds like a lot of fun~ I want to grab the journal mod for skyrim and make journals of all of my characters when I make new characters. I'm sure they all have stories to tell.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-25 23:21:04 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I'm pretty eager to learn, I just want to be good already!
I don't mind about graphics as long as the game is good, so I never had fancy graphics or mods or anything like that. I mean I had a few mods, but nothing for graphics.
I go in and out of writing sprees. I had a time a while back where I could not write a thing. I was so upset because usually I can't get the words down fast enough. It got so bad I was actually considering just writing a Skyrim fan-fic. But then an actual idea came from that and turned into my novel XD 
Oh, I definitely understand about learning while writing. Looking back over the novel (novella? 110 pages is no novel) I wrote when I was 9, and then all the others I've written since, I've improved insanely (thankfully). My aunt edits everything I write (though not lately) and she's two books behind where I am now, and I'm like 'I don't write like that anymore, I swear!'
I did the same thing XD I played Skyrim earnestly, loved it, all that. I got my hands on Oblivion a few months later and cheated my way through. I played on zero difficulty the entire time, though I play on legendary in Skyrim. I didn't like Oblivion as much, so cheating was the only way to get through, for me. 
I used to have the Sims 3 and I quite liked that, but it took up too much room on my laptop and I deleted it for other games XD
I always wanted that journal mod, but my internet's too slow to download it. I had to get my mods off friends. 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-26 01:33:41 +0000 UTC]

I had a graphic mod, so I think that's why my graphics card went kaput.

I had a lot of mods actually... I love them. I got a pretty fast internet connection, so I ended up downloading a bunch of things. Super easy to install too, I remember the days of oblivion and how hard it was to install mods...

I wish I had your mentality at age 9. At age 9 I was busy drawing vampires~ I had a head start on my art skills (in fact, I  recall being one of the best artist in 6th grade, already having a good grasp on anatomy), and got into writing when I was in 6th grade. Well, I was writing original stories, and drawing original pictures but my skills in both art and writing sort of dwindled for a bit, because my childhood friend got me into anime, then for a very long time I was into fanfics, fanart and all that jazz... /sighs i took a little  detour in my improvement, but now  I'm back on the road to improvement~ I am highly motivated now as it is.

I had a mod in skyrim which is not a cheat mod, but it makes it so you don't have to grind as much. I don't remember the name of it, but I really loved it. I did play Skyrim as earnestly as I could: I couldn't help but love it. Oblivion, I still cheat on, because I did like Skyrim more too and the way things were done. I'm not  good enough to play on legendary though I do play on slight difficulty half the time. I'm also a morrowind player sometimes, surprisingly. That game can be pretty freaky sometimes too... (I recall one time my main character had a nightmare, and I thought the game was over. I nearly jumped out of my seat, because of the bells... and I realized I had touched the bells earlier in that cave I adventured... it was crazy... )
 
Sims is a good series, though I liked Sims 2 the best for it's storytelling abilities~

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-26 09:43:28 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, that might have had something to do with it XD I mostly got Skyrim mods for new questlines and places etc. Most of the them didn't work. My favourite one that was graphics was one that made snow appear on your character whenever snow was falling. It just looked so cool. I haven't got any Oblivion mods but I'd imagine it'd make it more fun for me. I really enjoyed the Skyrim DLCs though.
I was all things creative very young - writing, drawing, all that. That's probably the only reason I progressed in digital art so quickly - I've been drawing my whole life. My stories... bordered on original. The first couple, the ones I wrote at age nine and then eleven, were probably the most original I wrote for a while. From thirteen, my stories were kind of based off other stories that I loved XD At thirteen it was Maximum Ride, fourteen it was The Hunger Games, fifteen it was kind of a cooler Twilight, sixteen The Hunger Games again. It's only now I've gone original again. I used to draw my characters in manga. Now my story's original, but my art isn't. 
Motivation is always good
I don't mind grinding in Skyrim. That's probably why I have seven games. XD I haven't been able to get Morrowind yet, but I've been hanging over my friend's shoulder for her to give it to me. I hope the Dunmer look better than they do in Oblivion. 
I can't remember ever playing Sims 2, though I probably have. I just remember making funny looking people and, like, the Addams family and stuff on 3 XD

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-26 23:02:48 +0000 UTC]

Oh I think I've heard of that mod... or at least the one that added footprints to the game. I had that one for a little bit, but I don't at the moment. I'll have to check out that one if I ever get a new graphics card. It sounds neat.

I went all out with my skyrim game... I usually got a lot of script mods, graphics mods, along side some fixes, and misc stuff like companion mods (probably only one though, since there's the games companions~). I had little-to-no weapon or armor mods unlike the predecessors, mainly because I loved the weapons in the game, and the armor, and I didn't like the choices available for females. (Tesnexus was my main mod source instead of Steam. )

I don't have any DLC, partially because I hadn't even finished playing the main game... but if I could finish it, I would play Skyrim DLC~

I still have some influences from anime that I've tried to shake off in the past, but I'm fairly comfortable with my style right now, though it is cartoony, If I do a couple tutorial searching, I could probably get better at clothing, hands, and lighting as well as shading, and find a more direct approach to shake off the more anime like parts of my drawings. For example: My skin really needs work, I have no clue how to shade skin correctly in a cartoon or semi realistic style, I've been shading it anime style the entire time.  If you have any recommendations on what to do, that would be great.

Actually, I remember when I was in 5th grade, I was writing original sim stories about my "famous good vampire character Amera that everyone loves" (XDDD ), if that counts, since it wasn't really based on the sims. I wrote that when I was 10, and it was before twilight. (Since I'm 19 now, that lands it around 2005. ) I wrote a few other stories other than that one,always writing in my journal at school~ but my experience with original stories, compared to fanfiction stories is next to none. And I'm very similar: My original story Netheron has only become my first purely original story in so long, and I completed it. (So I'm bound to be rusty!) I sometimes create stories that I have no clue what inspired me. Netheron is one those stories: it just is an idea that comes to me randomly in my dreams.

I've hardly played 3, but I do own the base game and Late Night- I didn't really like it too much because mods were too difficult to install... XD But It's still a neat game. I prefer 2, because it has boundless creativity with it, many, many mods, and can be enjoyable even now, when there's better games out there. I'm playing Sims 4 at times, too- but it's not as fun and gripping as Sims 2, and there's a small handful of mods already out there, and believe it or not- they work! XD (I know that's a HUGE problem with 3... those pesky mods that simply won't work no matter what you do. XD )

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-27 21:19:29 +0000 UTC]

I don't think it added footprints, but you could see snow on your character. It was so cute. 
Oh, there are three DLCs (one's really only for adopting children and building houses, but the other two add new questlines) and they're so good. They're literally just as good as the game.
I google so many time lapse tutorials, but I've never watched one in full. I probably should. All the ones I find off dA seem to cost something though. I need to get better at clothing. Fabric absolutely confounds me. Skin? Ah, I've been having trouble with skin lately. Basically what I do is start off with the base colour, then go over in a darker colour, layer set to Multiply, with a huge soft round brush (size depends on canvas size) to get the shadows around the face and in the cheeks etc, then I blur that. It usually looks pretty good. Also, if you want textures, like for pores, you make a new layer and fill that with pure white. Then you can fill that with the Noise filter (if you're on Photoshop?) then set the layer to Multiply. Then Gaussian Blur the layer so you can just see the dots. And voila, pores! Other than that, all I can recommend is to use references!
Awww, that's so cute. XD Everyone loves a good vampire. (Well, everyone loves bad vampires too so it's probably realistic). Well, at least you completed Netheron!   You're 80% ahead of most other writers (including me at the moment. I'm coming, I promise!)
Do you plan on trying to get it published?
Late Night was always my favourite. I loved being a vampire (still do, haha, it's hilarious). I had about fifty DLCs though - Pets, Generations, University, Island Paradise or something, Stuff (yeah, I think that was actually its name), and one where you could travel, and something for careers where you could be a rockstar or a magician or something. So I always had plenty to do. 
I've never played 4. I wasn't aware there was anything you could actually add to the Sims, I thought it had basically covered all corners by now, so I never bought it. Really my favourite part of DLCs was the new clothing and hair options XD
I don't think I have any mods for 3, but to be honest, I love glitches (have to, playing Skyrim) and I've always wanted to see some of the good ones I've heard of for the Sims. Stretchy people and stuff. Maybe installing a mod would work... 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-28 01:07:36 +0000 UTC]

That does sound cute. x3

I bet... I would love to try them out sometime~  they sound fun!

I have a lot of E-book resources, (which I should read, but I would probably watch more videos instead, since according to the school, I'm 0% visual XD [which is so not true]  ) though I used to go on deviant art for drawing resources. Now that the majority of the good ones  cost money, it's a little harder to find some free ones that would work. I would probably resort to going on my youtube tutorials~ I know a few good youtubers who do good tutorials, and I've collected drawing sites over the years... though I have so much information, I have no clue where I want to start

I have photoshop elements if that counts XD but I mostly use Paint tool SAI for my works. I recently picked up a program that is very all in between called "Clip Studio Paint" which is sort of like photoshop and SAI combined. (It's fairly new, but perfect for making comics~ It's also known as Manga Studio by a different company)

Hehe her name was Amera, and I remember how much I loved her. XD Instead of sucking blood, she sucked fruit. (Which I came up with my own vampiric race: The Fruit Vampires. XD ) I roleplayed Fruit Vampires, and people joined in and created their own Fruit Vampires~ twas fun. XD And to think: This was long before twilight. XD

I did complete Netheron, but now I want to rewrite it all over again~ because I still think it's very flawed. XD I actually did self publish it too, but it's really only going out to my friends and family for now (and my hardworking art teacher and English teacher!) I'll probably end up rewriting the whole thing, and when I perfect it and my writing is more loved, I'll probably think about self publishing the newer version to a different self publishing company. But I'm really only planning on self publishing again when I get far better at writing. I just want it to be perfect. XD By the way, your critique was well appreciated~ I'm super happy you decided to do that.

That's super cool. I have all the expansion packs of the sims 2 + Stuff Pack via a free download on Origin called "The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection" and it's super duper fun. The only thing is, you have to reduce the graphics to a certain level because of the engine's oldness, in order to rid of the black boxes, but that's because of the game's oldness. It's entirely fun otherwise and the glitches are super funny. XD It's so fuuuun~

4 is basically a little mash up between 2 and 3, with some added elements. They took away some features that were in 3 (which really sucks... ) such as the ability to simply play the game in real time mode, and surf the entire neighborhood in a car or in a subway. (Which honestly, was a huge part of gameplay in 3. ) They also took away toddlers, pools (but pools were added in a later update), and a few other things. But they added the ability to stop aging all together (which I love), to have aging for only one household (which I also love, because it was in the original sims 2, and they took it out in sims 3 for unknown reasons) and another good perk is the newly added "Emotions" which make the sims unpredictable and fun to play with. Plus mods are super easy to install, and there's already a handful available (this game came out in september!) I liked it over 3, but I hadn't played 3 a lot either. They also chose to dumb down the graphics, so if the graphics of sims 3 was your favorite, I wouldn't recommend grabbing this game. Create a Sim, and Creating Lots has been completely refurbished and changed, but they are structured better and more fun to work with, in my opinion. There's a lot of very good, and very bad things about this game... which is why my favorite is still two... but here's a picture of what my characters (with their added mods) look like in 4: vivilavivienne.tumblr.com/imag…

I love glitches too~ The Sims 2 has a lot of them. XD I can't recall some of the good ones I've seen, but they're all over the place!

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-28 02:06:26 +0000 UTC]

Fair enough about having too many resources, though I always feel like I don't have enough. I've stocked up on Youtube time lapses but I never seem to have the right one for what I want to do. I probably wouldn't have the patience to watch an hour-long tutorial (I'm also not a visual learner). 
I have Photoshop Elements too!   I actually paid money for it XD I mean, it's not so bad. Better than (for me) Paint Tool Sai, which I had to use for a bit and hated. Yeah, I've heard about Manga Studio, though since I don't draw manga digitally I haven't looked into it. 
The Fruit Vampires! Brilliant! It's the next big thing! :') Oh well, I'm just as bad. I had a race of angels crossed with vampires, which basically looked like angels but sucked blood, called the Dark Angels. I think it's just fun to make vampire derivatives. Vampires by themselves are so boring. It's much more interesting when they suck fruit.
Hey, look at it this way - even if you didn't want to totally rewrite Netheron, you'd probably end up doing it anyway, if you're anything like me. XD I've thought about self-publishing before, but then I decided I'd rather publish with a company, if anyone's willing to take my work. When I was fourteen I sent my story in for publishing and got rejected a few times. I was so happy even to get a rejection letter, it just made everything feel real. My parents didn't even know XD
Luckily for me, I'm pretty good with bad graphics (otherwise I wouldn't be able to play on my computer), so I'd probably be fine with Sims 2. I haven't even seen it in stores for ages now though. It's not that bad though, because I haven't seen Assassin's Creed: Black Flag in stores either and that only just came out. 
The only glitch I ever got in Sims 3 was one where I'd exit to the town map and everything would be just this flickering white. I could only see outlines of buildings. It was awful. 
I don't think I ever played in real time mode, I always had it way sped up. But I did used to take random trips around town in my car, haha, so it sucks that that's gone. 
They took away pools?   Why would you do that? At least they added them back in. As for toddlers, well, I don't like kids anyway XD I used to freeze their aging when they got to kids though and just improve their skills so they were child prodigies at art and stuff. Aging for one house would be good. I always accidentally make copies of my families and move them into the same neighbourhood (which would get really confusing when one of my Sims would walk into a building and they'd already be in there. It always took me a while to work out it was their copy). I used to see them getting old and then there'd be old versions of them walking around, and it was always really weird. 
Create a Sim was always my favourite part. I used to make Sims of my book characters. XD The graphics do look a bit worse, but your Sims look cool! You can take selfies, that's hilarious.

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-28 05:09:29 +0000 UTC]

What version do you have? Mine is Photoshop Elements 12~ I paid money  for it myself... I got it for a good deal when it was on sale!   And I love it~ <3 My favorite plugins are Lazy Nezumi Pro (which are a must have for shaky hands!) I also want to get another one called Elements XXL which has added features the actual photoshop has such as folders. (I would LOVE that so much~ so much better to organize... )

I personally love Paint Tool Sai, mainly because of the bright colors it gives. But it's really not so great for making semi realism art, and only good for anime and cartoon. I'm still trying out Clip Studio Paint, and it has a really awesome perspective tool that Lazy Nezumi Pro also comes with. (So I technically don't even need this program) But it was only 15 dollars for it, so it was a steal. Though I'm still trying to get used to it's features. It's coloring is a lot more bright and "anime like" then Paint Tool Sai or Photoshop (Example picture done here and  here with custom brushes. ) Though I like my brushes in Paint Tool Sai too much to completely give it up. I sometimes use Photoshop instead, mainly because I also love the photoshop brushes... and the many filter options it has. The rest of my gallery is mainly Paint Tool Sai.

I will probably rewrite it at some point. XD I just have this fever to want to rewrite again and again and again until I'm sick of it. XD  It's my first time really feeling this way about a story~ I used to go about a very different approach: I would write a chapter, totally just keep revising and editing that chapter, submit it, write another. Now I have to get used to revising and editing later on when I'm done getting my main point... it's hard because I just want to fix the errors now! XD But I make notes instead...

Blood sucking angels.. I think any writer is worthy of having a few badly creative ideas in childhood. XD I used to go on a sims forum once, they were a knit tight group of sim writers and they were so nice about my ideas. XD They never discouraged me at all... It was an awesome site~ I just wish they would have gave me more constructive criticism. XD (They still exist, though their forum is highly inactive these days~ )

I'm very curious: What is your planning style like when you're writing stories? For example: I generally find out more information about the characters by writing long character summaries (that I usually completely disregard later), and try to come up with the beginning plot in a separate document, then I figure out some research ideas (which research is still pretty new to me, I keep a document with links leading to sites if I ever need to see them when I write. ) and write some information regarding those down, and form more of my plot from that. Then I do a timeline, and anything else that is helpful: I write test runs to get my brain flowing with ideas for the characters, then I write a planning for the first chapter, and then I write the first chapter, changing what I changed from the planning. There's even more I do then that, but this comment is getting pretty long as is, so I'll spare you the details. XD

Yeah, they've long since taken Sims 2 out of stores. You'd probably have to find a way to download it, but it might be too much trouble. You could probably look for a used copy online if you really wanted to get it, but it might be expensive. Perhaps we'll get lucky and someone will create a download for it because it's such an old game~ The Sims 1 is even older, and they have it available for a free download on some sites, but that game is way outdated. I think I might have a picture on me of what the sims 2 looks like with additional mods: postimg.org/image/dqdp87m11/

Hehe, selfies are fun~ what I've noticed compared to my sims 2 graphics and sims 4 graphics, sims 2 actually looks better. (Not counting the way the shadows are) XD And thank you~ They are I believe, Estelle and Mae, and the Sims 2 picture is of Estelle. Some really crazy, unpredictable things can happen in the Sims 2. Like for instance: Estelle had a weather machine, Mae was going to use it to make it snow- and she ended up getting burned alive in a fire by flaming snow, then Estelle ended up halfway dying with her because Otto couldn't call the fire department. Otto pleaded for Mae's life, but the grim reaper was like: "Nope" and he took Mae's life. So then I ended up looking like: O__O in real life, because Estelle has a rain machine in the story, and Mae has to learn how to use it at some point. XD Strangest thing that ever happened to me in the sims, hands down.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-28 20:18:13 +0000 UTC]

So is mine! I only just bought it, because it was cheapest at my local computer store. I don't have any plugins. My hands aren't overly shaky and I only ever have one drawing going at a time, so I don't need to organise except in my drawing folder on the desktop. 
I did a really cool looking realistic eye in Paint Tool Sai, but I couldn't get anything else looking half as good. I did like watercolour. That was really cool. Eh, if it was only $15, it's probably alright. XD I was scared I was going to get Photoshop for $120 and then prefer the free Paint Tool Sai. Luckily that didn't happen. Yep, there's definitely a noticeable difference between the two. I do really like the PTS's colours, but I never got them in my work. Filters. Oh filters. I used to use them non-stop, I've sort of gone off them now. Sometimes I use them dulled down for a slight end effect.
I definitely know the feeling of wanting to edit now. Sometimes I find myself skimming back over to check something, and I start editing it. And I'm like 'stop!' It's really hard to stop sometimes. I don't even make notes, I just hope I'll remember XD
That's what childhood is all about - having the bad ideas so you don't get them later. Constructive criticism is a very rare breed of criticism, I've found. Reviewfuse was the only site I was on where 90% of feedback was actually constructive! 
My planning style? I do the same thing as you, I have big character summaries that I ignore later. Then I go looking for visual representations of my characters, usually in the form of actors. Then I usually leap into the first draft, get about three chapters in, decide I hate the beginning and rewrite that about fifty times. Currently my novel is titled 'Version 3.5' because I've gone through that many beginnings (more actually, I stopped updating after a while). I'm lazy and don't research until the end of the first draft, unless it's absolutely necessary to do so earlier. Generally I just want to get the story down. 
I never have a set plot. I have a general idea of where I want the story to go and how it ends, and sometimes who dies, but I rarely write out an entire plot idea. I usually deviate from it anyway. 
My current story is the first of a series, which is set in the same 'land' as two other series I have planned (yeah, I get ahead of myself sometimes. Both new ideas came to me in dreams, though, so I had no choice in timing), so I did this huge, overarching timeline spanning thousands of years (most of the later ones aren't filled in though, because they come with the later novels). I also do race profiles, because a lot of the races aren't human and I need reminding sometimes of lifespans and preferred habitats and social structures. Then I have pronunciation guides (mostly for any future readers rather than me) because the names are all made up, and a vocabulary for the language I had to make up for a race, because I'm not fluent in my own language, and I'm constantly adding words as I need them. I also did a map of the 'land' setting before I started writing, because I wanted to draw a map. XD Haha, don't worry, I'm used to long comments. 
Yeah, I reckon someone will release it as an antique or something someday Wow, with mods it looks awesome! I also love the steampunk type design.
Flaming snow? I really will have to play this one day. That's kind of creepy and clairvoyant. Does Mae burn in flaming rain in your story? 
The strangest thing that has ever happened to me in the Sims was in a library, when the Grim Reaper randomly walked in and sat down with a book. I was like   . It was so weird. I tried to go over and talk to him but he got up and walked out again. Then there was the time my guests got stuck at my wedding party. To this day I have no idea why. But they did, they got stuck in my kitchen (cause that was the opportune place my Sims decided to get married, though I had a thing set up out in the garden). For days after (when the wedding was long over and my Sims were walking around and everything), they stood in my kitchen clapping and throwing petals and making 'aww' noises. Until they all started to wet their pants and I threw another party to see if they'd go away this time. One of them died in the middle of it and so the Grim Reaper showed up at my party and put a gravestone on my dining room floor and started eating cake. I then actually talked to him (yay!) and chatted him up and tried to propose to him but he left before I could. He still showed up as a best friend in my friend log! 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-28 23:26:46 +0000 UTC]

I got mine from amazon, and I've loved it ever since~ Yeah I do go a little bit crazy with filters. I love them. I use custom brushes all the time and photoshop, and in paint tool sai, and the custom brushes I use are A LOT better than the originals, but what I really like about SAI is it's option to control your pen movement a little more crisper than photoshop. (Which is uneeded when you're doing painting, but for lineart, it's quite a blessing. ) But with a program like "Lazy Nezumi Pro" (which I got the professional version for a good 30 sum odd bucks) I don't have to worry about redoing and redoing  and redoing strokes, because it works amazing wonders in photoshop elements as well as photoshop and you can even make it work for other programs such as paint tool sai and manga studio (given you don't forget to change ini document in SAI to make it work. ) It makes my works look 100% more crisp.

I only got photoshop for I believe... 70 dollars. But I love using it for making the picture look better~ My Wacom Intuos tablet also came with a plugin with a few filters that I use a lot, though lately I've been doing a lot of gradient tone work as well. I do sometimes use Photoshop without paint tool sai, though every time I try to do a semi realism I fail miserably and it turns into comic style cartoon. XD One of these days, I'll try to learn to shade semi realism. '

I tried to sign up for reviewfuse, but  for some reason, the login screen disappears for me. I don't know if it's a problem with my browser or what, because I tried it not only on firefox, but also google chrome and internet explorer. I was hoping to sign up for it, because I would love to~ but for some reason,  I can't D: So I guess it's a bit of a sad moment for me.... oh well! XD

Very interesting... I like to know how other people do their work~ I like to draw my characters when I'm working on a story, just to get a better visual of them~ Estelle went through many different designs, and she's a derivative of 2 other characters I've created (Priscilla, who is a derivative of Vanilla, both who are derivatives of Estelle. Priscilla has Estelle's wig hair, and Vanilla is where Estelle gets her villain gene from. Priscilla was supposedly the remake of Vanilla, but she's also her own character, though I never really made her into any stories. She's supposedly in a fantasy realm. ) and she's also been in 3 other stories that were very short lived (one of them "Colors" got turned into a oneshot, though I still really hate it. XD ) but she fits perfectly in this story, though she's been a real struggle to create because she started out so opposite of her form today. (She started out simply being a "cardboard" character who was my alter ego, who either had too hard of a past, or everyone felt sorry for her. It was terrible... )

Ah, I did a map of Netheron very briefly. One of the biggest flaws I didn't research was a very simple one: Netheron should have been an entire country, not a town... /smacksself and if Drethathon was a town, why can't it be a smaller country? Oh well. Next time (if I write Netheron all over again) I'll do more research into the monarch's system, what some of the fashion terms are called (I know what bustles and crinolines are, for example~ I didn't in the time of writing Netheron. ) And hopefully a little more of the steampunk elements can be interpreted as I read more steampunk novels. (As I honestly knew absolutely NOTHING about steampunk going into this. )

That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing that with me~ I never thought about making up an entirely new language, how do you go about it? I recall loving to make up new words. My username, for example, is a made up word entirely. (I pronounce it "Viv-yeh" or "Viv-yee" ) So is Netheron, and Drethathon. (And Netheron sounds like it should be a word in my opinion. XD )

Thank you~ Oh, I would think not. XD Though there is more than one scene where the rain machine gets abused by someone other than Estelle and Mae ends up getting caught in a fire and is forced to save Otto from impending doom. Plus there's another scene near the epilogue where the town catches on fire because of the lightning strikes, and Mae must save the day, and Otto almost dies.

Wow that's crazy. It's  too bad in the sims 2, the Grim Reaper hardly shows up unless someone dies. I'll have to reinstall 3 sometime and see if I can spot any weird glitches. XD And that's completely awesome~  oh wow, that sounds hilarious~ what a glitch! XD I've never had anything quite like that happen to me... XD

One time I  ran a business in the sims 2 named after Estelle, and it did not go so smoothly. I had basically everything and tried to do everything right, but all my customers hated the business. Someone rage quit my job, so I fired everyone and made the only people working to be Estelle, Otto and Mae. Things went a little more smoothly, and I managed to climb from a -2 business to a 1 business in 5 sim days. XD It was so much fun~ What's really funny is how true it was for Estelle, because she's supposedly a hated princess in my book.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-29 03:25:17 +0000 UTC]

I am a painful person >.< I just deleted my entire message by accident. Here goes again. 
My first digital drawing was literally lineart, block colours and filters. I only just got to use custom brushes because I used to use the Elements on my school laptop, which wouldn't let me download stuff. So now I use Elements on my own laptop and I can finally download brushes! I've noticed too that Photoshop doesn't give crisp lines easily, and none of my work seems very sharp. It's really annoying. 
$70? Lucky you! My Cintiq didn't come with any plugins, but I suppose that's alright because it's a Cintiq. I can't for the life of me imagine how someone could go from cartoon shading to realism shading! I count myself lucky as having always drawn realistically! Good luck, I'm sure you'll get there!
Oh, that's weird. My login page never messed up like that, but I suppose it's been three years. If it's any consolation, I just found a $30 iTunes gift voucher, and my iTunes store has only showed a blank white page for the past three days!  
Wow, that's a lot of character designs XD Well, she's definitely an interesting character now, so I guess all those changes were worth it. 
I suppose my fantasy country, Tarragon, was always going to be a country. Haha, I just googled Tarragon out of interest and apparently it's a herb. Oh well, it sounds like a land to me. Interestingly enough, I also have a character called Mae, though she's only minor, and her full name is Maelyrra. I love steampunk. I wore a steampunk dress to my graduation dinner, it was amazing.
Well, I go about making up a new language by trying out random 'words' in a sentence in my head, and go from there. Then I basically just make up new words as I need them. A big prompt for words was character names - I 'translated' their names, making up words to go with each syllable. That was fun. 
I always pronounced your username Viv-yee. Mine's made up as well. I still have no idea how to pronounce it. I always think 'ah-ruh-stay-uh' but I think it would actually be 'ah-ruh-stee-uh'. It's kind of derived from Adrasteia, who is some goddess whose name I liked. XD Netheron should be word. It sounds so awesome.
Ah, the fire connection is still there. Even if it isn't flaming rain. Close enough.  
That Grim Reaper absolutely made my day. And those guests. Ah, I miss the Sims. Haha, that's the way you deal with employees that won't do the work! See, the Sims is all-knowing. It sees all. 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-11-29 07:06:45 +0000 UTC]

I've been doing digital art since 7th-8th grade (some without a tablet, some with a tablet) and I gotta say, my art used to be 100 times worse. My first tablet was a bamboo fun, and it took quite a bit of time to get used to. But it certainly was addicting to do digital art once I got used to it~ (I ended up doing both traditional and digital for a long time. I still have the materials used for traditional today, but I hardly use them... )

I started out using a program called GIMP. It's like photoshop, but free. I used to create avatars and signatures for a forum too, using those things. Then I progressed and when I got my first tablet (which comes with Photoshop elements 6), I also got the bought version of paint tool sai (though these days I'm using a free version, because it's easier to take with me places ) because I heard about it's unique abilities. Back then I was a huge anime drawer, and my characters all resembled the same look. After a while, it does get a little tedious drawing the same thing all the time. XD

I ended up switching over to my Intuos when I was 16, and it  came with Photoshop Elements 10. I upgraded 2 years later.   Word of advice: Don't get your tablet from amazon. Buy it from your hardware store, even if it's more expensive. I've struggled with getting my Intuos to work properly for years... we have a love hate relationship with each other. ;u;

I'm unsure if that's the actual price I got it with, but it sounds about right. It wasn't too expensive, and it was entirely affordable, so I got it.

I've tried realistic a little bit at times... I tried doing portraits of all of my family members once, but they turned out cartoony still. I did a realistic picture of Otto, then it turned into a comic style him. I referenced off of some random teen actor, but changed a few features. I guess cartoon drawing is just my thing.

Yeah I worked a bunch with Estelle. She also takes a lot of inspiration in her design from a picture someone on deviant art drew (I believe it was The Tech   ) and a little bit in her personality from Elsa (from Frozen), Vanilla, and a few others that I can't recall... so I would hope  she's interesting as a character. XD Otto takes some interesting inspiration as well~ I see a little bit of Peeta (hunger games), a little bit of Vyers (from this game I played when I was 14 called disgaea), and some other characters in him. Mae mainly takes inspiration from Katniss (hunger games), Light-Storm (my character from the same universe as Vanilla), and basically any strong female character I've seen or created.

Maelyrra sounds like a really neat name for a character, very beautiful! I have a steampunk outfit that I wore for halloween~ I got the shirt from hot topic, but I can't wear it to work so I wore it on Halloween~ was fun. Seems like all my teachers are into steampunk... I had a teacher show me her clothing she wore for a convention that she made herself, when she found out I was writing a steampunk novel. (Though you can't really describe Netheron as "steampunk" can you? I'm unsure myself... )

I've always pronounced your name as "Ah-ruh-stee-uh" in my head. I do pronounce my username as "Viv-yee" most of the time.

Oh lol XD I'm just laughing~ laughing so hard. My dad always says that in the Sims 2, they did a good job with the ability to make a miniature world, and create elements that we all can relate to. I've had those aha sim moments as well...

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-11-30 21:33:17 +0000 UTC]

I've done traditional for most of my life, greyscale pencil sketches mostly. It's only recently that I've gotten into digital art. It is addictive, isn't it? Literally as soon as I finish a work I post it on DeviantArt, and then a couple of hours later I begin the lineart for a new one. I just can't help it XD
I was considering GIMP but decided against it. What is it with these tablets coming with software? It's so unfair. Haha, yeah, anime does tend to get like that. That's why I appreciate realism a bit more; there's more deviation. Back when I used to draw my stori characters as manga, the only thing they had different was their hair, really XD
I got my Cintiq from the Wacom store itself. I was trying to convince my parents to buy from Amazon but they were insistent that I wouldn't. I guess they were right then. Oh well.
Yeah, I think if you have a particular style, it tends to stay that way pretty persistently. Even when I drew anime, their eyes used to be always a little realistically shaped. I guess it's unavoidable. I stopped doing family portraits when I was twelve and my little sister laughed at the one I did of her, even though I was so proud of it XD
I've never seen that Sakimichan drawing before, I guess I just missed it while skimming her gallery. I definitely understand how it inspired Estelle though!
Haha, yes, I knew there was some Peeta/Katniss influence in Otto and Mae! I couldn't say what influences my female protagonists, probably my Skyrim Dragonborns XD My male protagonists are often inspired by books, games, movies. I'd list them but I have seven protagonists in my novel, so it'd take too long
Thank you! I made the name up myself. I'll find an excuse to wear my steampunk outfit around anywhere. The designs are just too cool, and they're one of the few things that suit me! I've never actually read a steampunk novel, and only a couple of short stories, so I've no idea if Netheron is one or not, but from what I know of the outfits (which is really all I know), Netheron doesn't quite fit. 
I think you're right, so I guess I'll have to change the pronunciation in my head. I'm really good with pronouncing random words, but names I cannot do. I always change them to how I want them to sound, rather than how they should sound. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm pronouncing most of my game character's names wrong. The only one I know for a fact that I have right is Saoirse ('ser-shuh') because it's Irish and I googled it. :3 After a day or two of pronouncing it 'say-oh-ers', of course. XD
Yep, your dad is right. They did an amazing job to make a relatable little version of earth. 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-01 02:44:05 +0000 UTC]

I'm always doing something new... since my gallery is mainly art, poetry and stories, and people watch me for either all 3,  or just one, or two of them. There are way too many reasons why people watch me on deviant art. I'm always trying to improve all of my skills in each. It's a handful... I had no clue my poetry would be so well liked, it's crazy! I could be much better at it~ plus I'm the type of person to avoid darker poetry, which is sometimes what poetry is all about. The artwork comes first before anything else (because this is an art site after all~), and the stories is because I love to write, though it's the least liked thing. (Until I posted Netheron, no comments, just favs. Though one story got 4 favs, which is quite good for a story... )

GIMP is good for the digital art beginner (who is probably very young) who can't afford photoshop elements, sai or any other program. You're right to not get it, but it's a good program for making signatures and avatars if you don't know / can't use photoshop. I used it when I was like 12 so I probably don't know any of the controls now, but supposedly it worked similar to photoshop, only it was free. There's also Paint.net, which apparently is good for making gaming textures (my 13 year old brother uses it all the time for making games... ).

I like variety myself, which is why I changed my style to a more cartoony look. I try to make my characters look unique, while still maintaining the anime ratio in some areas. (My characters generally have big eyes) though some of my characters stick to this formula more than others... (for instance, Estelle is more anime like, because I originally drew her in an anime form... she's got the big eyes, small nose, small mouth thing going, and she's quite petite and small as a character, probably is only around 5'0". Mae and Otto are around the same height, because Otto is short for his age, and Mae is unusually tall as a person, which I imagine they'd be close in height, standing at about 5'5" or 5'6". They say in psychology class, that if you are short, you are a challenged individual, that you may have been bullied when you were younger, and never had the chance to grow. I love psychology, so I took the class, and found that little bit interesting. XD I'm unusually short myself (I haven't grown since 7th grade... XD ) , buuuut I don't think I really was bullied very much, lol. I'm just short for some reason.

Well, my style always changes as well... I can never stick to one thing completely. You've probably seen how my whole gallery has a lot of variety in the style. Sticking to one thing is hard. XD But I think I've mainly found the style I'm looking for. At least, I think so. I watch a lot of different styles including anime related ones (even semi realism, no photography, though) but they all inspire me so much, I don't know what my main style is.

I watch Sakimichan, she's one of my favorite semi realism / anime drawers, though she's been doing a lot of fanart lately, so I haven't been favoriting a lot of her works. Oh well. She still has a nice gallery, and I loved that picture~ couldn't help but get inspired~

Haha, I know right? XD I didn't notice it until now... Hunger games is one of my favorite books (and movie of course ) The plotline at the start also takes some liberties from hunger games, but it really becomes completely different towards the end. I personally think the end of the book is probably the most unexpected thing, and (hopefully) the reaction readers get isn't that they throw the book across the room and hate it. XD

Well I really like it! It's always creative to make up names~ I've made up some names for characters too, though none of the names in Netheron are made up.

Ahhh ok.  Good to know~ I did take one too many liberties with the design of the characters, though Steampunk can mean a lot of things and have a lot of variety, It's understandable that my characters fall through a different style. I should have studied the style more. Writing steampunk fiction is surprisingly a difficult thing.

I totally pronounced it 'say-or-sheer' in my head. XD I don't know.. OTL I'm just as bad at names. XD

Indeed~

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-01 20:25:07 +0000 UTC]

I think most people watch me because I've been chatting to them XD If you have well liked poetry, you've done well! Most poets don't get much attention (I'm not entirely sure of that but I rarely see it anywhere, then again I hate poetry XD ). Yeah, four favs is good! When I posted my major I got a comment and a fav, from the same person
Well, from what I saw of the new Elements, Photoshop is quite basic too. All my tools that used to be on the main page in Elements 9 are under the Expert tab in 12. It took me ages to find them, I thought they weren't there! There are a lot of art softwares out there, I'm surprised half of them can get by!
Well, you definitely succeed in making your characters look unique! I noticed the big anime-type eyes I always thought doing psychology would be cool, and really useful for story-writing too! I didn't know that about short people, that's really interesting. I was never really bullied, and I'm fairly tall, so it works for me.
Yeah, I noticed the variations in your gallery, but then again, my gallery looks as if it was put together by a bunch of different people. I always think, yeah, I really like this style, then I draw again and it either turns out completely different or I don't like it anymore. I'll definitely do realism of some kind but that's all I've got at the moment. It's kind of annoying. So I completely understand not knowing what you want your style to be. 
I watch her too. I didn't like her work at first but it grew on me. Because she's so popular I kept seeing it everywhere and after a while I began to appreciate it. But yeah, I don't favourite much of her stuff. 
I loved the Hunger Games as well. I read the books sooo many times and tracked the first movie every single day in the lead-up to its release. The movie was surprisingly good, and Catching Fire even better. I'm worried about Mockingjay though. Yeah, your plot is definitely different to the Hunger Games. Haha, we'll see about that ending. We'll just have to see XD Though I've never thrown a book before. Definitely not throwing my laptop.
I love making up names. The problem is then getting other people to pronounce them right Eh, studying style is what second drafts are for XD You shouldn't have too much trouble working in steampunk elements, the foundations are all there.
Haha, 'say-or-sheer' is closer than what I was saying! 'say-oh-ers'. What a gross name XD I like 'ser-shuh' much better. 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-02 07:27:07 +0000 UTC]

I would say that about my watchers too~ a lot of them have chatted with me before, and we get along. It's quite nice. I got 10 favs on one poetry work (which is actually pretty dang good if you ask me... ) and a bunch of comments for others. It does put a little bit of pressure me one at times, because I really have to be very careful what I put up for poetry... some of my watchers don't tolerate the heavy stuff, while others are very deeply set on heavy stuff, and because of the range of things I do, I have to think about what fits me best as a person vs what my watchers would like to see.

Poetry for me, is just another form of expression... obviously I don't hate it, I respect it.. many poets have to put up with a tough life, and though I wouldn't say I'm the most heartbroken person, I have struggled a bit in the past, so I respect the passion of the poets, just as much as I do the passion of the writers, or the artists. I usually prevent myself from posting my more heavy weight stuff, mainly because I believe no one in my watcher's group would want to see poetry that is dark in nature. I keep most of my poetry to myself... in a way, it's actually a really nice way to vent on a bad day. XD

But you're right. Not a lot of poets gain attention... poetry is a dying art form in my opinion, kept alive by those who battle hard times. I really like it because it gives me freedom of speech in ways I can't normally have. But well, I wrote one too many paragraphs about poetry, so I'll talk about something else~ XD

 I was an anime drawer for a very, very long time. I think some of the stories I wrote even reflected this: since some of my fanfics were game/misc based from anime style (oh lord) they ended up sounding like it was a light novel (which is essentially an anime/manga inspired book with pictures, usually based on a certain fandom or it's own thing~)... probably pretty awful too... XD Glad to grow out of it~ though I wish I wouldn't have waited 5 years. XP Oh well...

Oh psychology is also wonderful for other reasons too~ It made me work 100% harder in school, for one thing. It taught me how to respect education (if that doesn't sound weird enough... XD), and how to read people better, and also how to cope with myself too. It also taught me a sneaky trick to deal with insomnia (though these days it doesn't work on me anymore...  I get insomnia anyway, regardless. XD) which involves eating the tiniest amount of chocolate before bed to sooth tension, and destress, as well as jolt enough energy to make you fall asleep (if that makes any sense. ) I do have a little bit of trouble  sleeping everyday... I usually get to bed at 12:00 am in the morning, if not later. I'm unsure why, it just happens. Me and my family are a bunch of insomniacs. XD

I have that problem with my gallery a bit too... I've drawn so many different styles in cartooning and anime-like form, it's super hard for me to keep track. I probably found my style I'm looking for, but I'm the type of person who's prone to making big changes every so and so, depending on how happy I am with where I'm at. I wouldn't worry too much about consistency though, especially if you're doing realistic style, unless you're worrying about proportions of the face and such. Your artwork might always be a little bit different, until you find the right fit for you. It took me forever to find my style, and I still have yet to truly "find" it. It's a growing experience. I do wish you the best of luck for the road ahead, though, as long as you're passionate about what you do, it's worth everything~

Some people get really popular because they draw a lot of fanart. Variety, fanart, and impact of style all play important roles in making a strong point for your watchers. Many people also get popular for meaningful deviations, hidden meanings, comics, long term projects and if you're a writer: well written content too. And a lot of smooth talking... a lot of it. But I'm not a hugely power-starved social butterfly, I'm actually quite introverted, and so the thought of growing so popular I get 20+ comments a day, actually scares me. XD I wouldn't know what to do with myself! All those people, yikes! But yeah... XD

I'm going to see Mockingjay part 1 pretty soon, and re-watched Catching Fire for the third time today. I hope Mockingjay turns out to be okay... I understand the book itself turned out a little bit less interesting than the 2nd novel, but I personally think Mockingjay isn't that bad of a book either, though I understand that people might be worried about the protest in Thailand too. Apparently some people in Thailand (as told in this article: The Hunger Games: Accidental Statement of Protest?   ) posed a 3 finger salute that Katniss does in the movie, and then they also pretty much slowed the process of the release in china because the Chinese are afraid of the movie making people go about more protests because of what happened in Thailand. (I find this super interesting, btw) It's funny how our characters in novels and movies tend to inspire us more than our authority figures.

The ending is a bit of a double shocker, completely unexpected, so hopefully not in the way that people throw  books. I personally think the whole book is just full of unexpected suprises. I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping Estelle's character is portrayed in the best way... I'm not too concerned about Mae, I love her... Otto himself could afford a bit more characterization, but I'm not too concerned about him either. It's Estelle: She's the big bomb the book is about, and if I don't portray her correctly, the book can fall apart, and people will hate her character. (Which I really don't want people to really hate Estelle, because she's so vulnerable and so overprotective of herself. I want people to feel sorry for her, but not overly so- enough to gain a little bit of: "Wow, this character isn't what I thought she was." If that's done with correctly, my story is successful~ )

I will try my best to make steampunk elements as well~ perhaps add descriptions of bustles and such to the character's description, maybe create more of scenery imagery, and dwell deeper into what really makes a "steampunk" story. I thought maybe I could tone down a few things about Estelle's technology as well- her technology is so advanced, it's not really considered "steampunk" but more "sci fi" in nature.  I already added the victorian dialogue (as foretold by another request) though I might doublecheck the suffixes used. I'm had to take liberties on such, as there's not a long of information on what Estelle would be classified as, neither what she would call others. (But Estelle's mannerism is a little bit screwy as well, because of her jumbled up etiquette. )

I have a habit of pronouncing things in a Japanese-like way. XD Probably because I tried learning japanese at 14 once... didn't work out too well...

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-03 21:30:36 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, 10 favs and several comments is actually really good! It's difficult writing and drawing and so on when you have to think about other people. Just have to be careful you don't start doing it specifically for them.
I don't hate the idea of poetry at all, and I definitely respect poetry and the poets that write it (I had to study Sylvia Plath for school, so I completely understand the whole rough life thing). I just don't like poetry, I find it boring. I've vented in poetry before too XD But now I'm more likely to play video games or write my novel. I'd hope poetry isn't dying, as I appreciate it an as art, but unfortunately there's nothing I can do happily to keep it alive. I generally won't read it unless it's very very good, and the style appeals to me (which is rare, though I did like Plath's style).
I most certainly drew a lot of anime, but I don't think it came through in my stories. Mine were never straight fanfics, I always had noticeable twists on them and different characters, because I never did quite like the idea of fanfics. Even when I was practically stealing ideas, I still wanted to be slightly original XD Still, I like fanfics a lot more now, I've seen some that are very well written (though the rare few).
No, respecting education doesn't sound weird at all. I hated school by the end, but I'm really keen to learn in university, because I can learn stuff I want to learn and that will help me later in life. I don't like it when people can't respect education. Having insomnia would suck. It always takes me a while to go to sleep but I doubt it's insomnia. Whatever keeps me up, it definitely isn't stress anymore It's probably being on the computer right before I go to bed!  I usually go to bed at about 10pm, and I'm asleep by 11. I've been getting to sleep earlier lately though.
I've gone through so many huge stylistic changes since finding digital art. It was anime at very first, then realism, then greyscale realism, then colour semi-realism (basically anime), then colour realism again, and now I think I've pretty much settled on that. It gives me a lot of scope, so I'm happy with it. I think there'll always be a certain 'look' to my people's faces, no matter whether I draw realism or semi-realism, but it looks better in realism so I'll do it that way!
Actually getting popular with fan-art is sort of the way I'm aiming at the moment. I'm torn between wanting it and not. I'm such an introvert in real life that attention somewhere where I don't have to actually deal with it face-to-face seems very nice! It's never true fan-art though, I'm almost always drawing my own characters rather than someone else's. Still, I have to get better before I get popular! I'm willing to wait :') Yet I'm always worrying about pleasing my 36 watchers... what will I do with a couple of hundred? I've discovered that most of my watchers never favourite my stuff anyway, so it's alright!  
At the time I loved the book of Mockingjay, and several months after, in fact, I re-read it so much. But I think my favourite part was the Games, and it was the strongest part, so it lost a little when it cut the Games. I hope it doesn't exacerbate the Thailand protests but I suppose people do tend to be overly inspired by characters they love. That was actually the first I'd heard of it, doesn't sound too good!
Yeah, I think Mae and Otto are both handled very well, and I agree that Estelle is the pivotal point. I have the same problems with my narrator. She is basically an antihero in the extreme. The point I'm exploring in the book is the idea of moral ambiguity, how there can never be universal justice because 'correct' ethics differ so completely between opposing parties - people always think THEY'RE doing the right thing. So my narrator is portrayed in the prologue as the antagonist, and it's from the POV of a man she is about to kill. Obviously, this can create problems later - I don't want people to hate my narrator, though she is entirely hateful. She comes through in the end - that's her character arc - but if I get her wrong, the book collapses. It's a balancing act I'm not sure how I feel about Estelle at the moment, but I guess I'll find out soon. I know I don't hate her, so you're doing well so far!
Yeah, toning down the technology might help make it steampunk, but I really have no idea! 
Gah. Other languages XD I'm really not a multilingual person. That's what makes making up my own so difficult!

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-04 05:11:31 +0000 UTC]

Of course. I do all this monitoring for myself mainly, because I struggle with getting too attached to things... such as characters, plots, poetry themes and even genres. Some of this is good- Steampunk I'm thoroughly obsessed with, so is writing, drawing, and poetry works. But I try to channel it all into good energy, with a good outcome, because I know for myself, it's unhealthy to be too focused on bad events, dark poetry, or dark stories- antagonists, ectera. Even took some liberties with Estelle... I didn't make her completely evil, because she just didn't appeal to me that way... she seemed to share a good side, as well as a not-so-good side. She was stubborn to get to- she wanted her story told exactly how she wanted it to be told. I went many directions, but in the end- she took my hand, and wrote the book herself. I just wrote her the way she needed it to be written. I guess that's what makes her a decent character.

Ah, I hear you. Yeah, even when I was in 6th grade I was caught doodling and writing poetry all over my binders. I defied school, didn't like it very much. I learned since then, and grew to love it- because I understand education fairly well, more than other people I'd even say (but I don't mean that in a cocky way at all... I mean it in the way, that I wasn't the best at school, and fell behind in a lot of classes. ) I really didn't like school at first, but I grew to love it.

Ah, my fanfiction was usually was written with a lot of twists and turns and unexpected events.  I used to write for something called Vocaloid, which is super hard to explain what exactly it is ( in two words: Singing Androids), but it left a lot of room for freewriting because it had emphasis on free personalities and setting (with lack of any original content other than PVs or fanmade works from the writers, producers, or artists), notably due to the lack of characterization for some of the characters, on purpose to better communicate ideas and give freedom for the producers of the songs. Unfortunately,  I got a little  too carried away in some areas, so I ended up just scrapping a lot of my ideas and turning to original works, which are much easier  to write anyway, due to better control of your characters. (Plus when you write about a character that already exists, it's too easy to get obsessed with them, and turn your writing into purple prose... something I am most certainly guilty of... haha~ ) I'm glad to be writing original fiction now, it's a lot better world for me. It's kind of opposite for me: I loved fanfiction so much, it was the death of my writing skills, so I learned to let go of it and write more original works~ so I'm a lot happier now-a-days.

I'm a huge introvert in real life as well~ I enjoy getting attention on here though, it's quite nice! Though I'm talking about getting TOO much feedback, so much you can't reply to all comments... that much attention, I would likely want to stay away from. XD I'm such an introvert in real life, people don't seem to really understand or realize I'm there unless it was 2 days ago when I was presenting my book to people in several of my classes and receiving not one, not two, but three applause from two different classes. It was the most embarrassing, happy thing of my entire life... and the next day I was so exhausted, I didn't even go to school or work, I just slept... a lot. Like your average introvert would.

Be  careful that you don't suddenly stop draw your original characters too~ I used to draw nothing but fanart long ago. It made drawing my own characters impossible. It's why I strive so much to create original work these days and avoid fanart as much as possible! For me, it was destructive to my ability to create original works, so I don't recommend a very high dose of it.

Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that happened! They are just characters of a book (and movie) after all. But to have such an high impact is just so crazy for me. But it's interesting...

I'm glad they are handled good in your point of view. I sometimes wonder if the book should be more centered on Mae instead of Estelle, because Estelle steals so much of the fame of the characters, but she's so important to the plot... and to  write a whole book on her as the main character, when she already knows everything that goes on, is not good. Which is why Mae narrates most of the story. Estelle supposedly was the main character until I realized her role as the antagonist was needed more than her role as the protagonist. Plus she seemed more cut for the job. I don't know... do you think it matters, that a character who is the antagonist have a huger role than the protagonist? I personally think Estelle is handled so carefully throughout the entire book, because she's so vital to the main plot. So I'm unsure of where she stands in this... but I'm glad to know so far in the feedback (yours included) that Estelle is well liked as a character. I've even had a growing collection of fanart from people. And they're quite good pictures! Well only 3 pictures so far... 2 of them are of Estelle, 1 of those being a request. Someone liked my story enough to create fanart not once, but twice which makes me super duper happy~ x3




 

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-04 21:26:13 +0000 UTC]

I think I'm a naturally really dark person - I love all the bad events and dark stories. In fact, my story could be seen as arguing for the side of evil, and in a way I suppose it is. But I could counter that by saying it argues that there's good in everyone Yay, I'm glad someone feels as if their characters dictate the book and we have no say in it. I always thought it was just me feeling that my characters were real people. XD

I was the other way around. I loved school when I was little. I was the type of girl who'd start an assignment the day she got it and finish it in the next two and get 100%. After about ten years of that though, I started to get sick of it. I was still doing really well by the time I graduated (still waiting on final results, fingers crossed) but I just hated it. 

Singing Androids? I've heard of Vocaloid before but I never knew what it was. It sounds interesting though XD So... the idea is that you have to write fanfics? That would be awful. I couldn't do that. I love making up my own characters too much. Also I wouldn't think it would promote very good ethics... just writing fanfics... off the back of other people's ideas and characters... it's probably a good thing that you just went original! Haha, good old purple prose. I was definitely a victim when I was little. I think I've toned down now. Though I have the opposite when writing about other people's characters, unless I really adore them... I just can't attach myself to them, because I don't know them well enough. At least you're happy writing original stuff

I can't imagine getting so many comments I can't reply to them all. Even then, I'd still try. As long as I could simply escape the attention by logging off, I'd be alright XD I also get people not knowing I'm there. Congratulations on your book's success! It's always embarrassing being recognised, but it can be good too. It's like the time I got all the major awards at my Year 10 end-of-year presentation ceremony. I had to stand out the front for about five minutes while they went through the five awards I'd received. It was embarrassing, but it was nice to be acknowledged. I completely understand sleeping through your recovery!

I don't think I'll ever revert to total fanart nonstop. I'm proud of my OCs, which is why I draw them, and I rarely feel the need to draw a character that didn't come from my own mind. Back in my writer's block last year, when I was going to write a Skyrim fanfic just to get out, I knew that trying to do that wouldn't work, even though I loved Skyrim beyond comprehension, because it just wasn't creative enough for me. As you might guess, I too now have serious problems with trying to write non-original work. It really does kill creativity.

No, I think you're handling Estelle well so far. It is definitely Mae who connects with the audience, but the story is really and clearly about Estelle. I've seen the same thing done many times, and I'm planning on doing it myself at some point. Actually, I think it's important that the antagonist has a larger role than the protagonist. We rarely question the protagonist, we just accept them, but we're always challenging the antagonist so it's vital that they are an extremely well-developed character. Without the antagonist, there would be no story! Fanart! Oh, that really would be amazing! I'm so happy for you that people like it so much that they would do that for you! To me, fanart based on a story has always seemed like a thing for the superstars.  

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-05 04:22:20 +0000 UTC]

The only reason I'm not like that anymore, is because I went through a period of time, where that was all I  ever did, was write tragedies, horror stories, dark stories in general and dark artwork. It was awful.. and I was prone to be addicted to it... and I'm such a cheery person by nature too, that it always dampened my mood. I did not feel well at all, I was so negative of a person... which is why I emphasize happiness and good nature in my works, because I don't want anyone to fall into the same hole I did in my 16 and 17 years. I'm actually totally against writing horror now... something that would've been easy to do ages ago.

If there's one thing I've learned since writing Netheron, it's that the characters always lead themselves. XD I was worried in the development that Estelle would become out of control again, but she didn't become that way. She hated her old name: Estrella, which means "Little Star" in spanish. XD I changed everything about her... appearance, time, hair, outfit, name, bio, even her facial  features and style she was drawn in was changed. I never want to go back... ever.  I really hated her old appearance. She had 3 name changes. Her first name was based on my old username, which I am so ashamed of, I would never ever share in my entire life.

Yeah that about sums it up. Vocaloid is basically just "Singing Androids" because they are a computerized software that the whole realm of creativity falls into. Many artists, writers, and composers alike all work to produce Vocaloid inspired works. They even have their own concerts and fancy things like that, which are completely awesome, because they're basically holographic, except that it's not "real" holograms, just close to real ones. I used to do fanart for them all the time too, now I basically just do original works. Yeah, to write a story about the characters and provide a new twist for an event based off of a PV just got really old after a while. You could also do your own spin on their personalities and write a completely new fiction just using their names and providing them with a whole new personality, so it's more "free realm" than most fanfics, but it still opens up to purple prose and such icky things.

Me neither. To get so many comments in one day is just killer. I always have the mentality that I want to reply to everything I see. Thank you! I'm so thrilled about it. I live in a small community, so word got around pretty fast and now the whole school knows! Usually I'm ignored, but on that day, everyone paid attention to me... it was no wonder I  felt so exhausted in the morning!

I'm very proud of my OCs these days as well, and I feel the same. I hardly ever draw anything that isn't created from me. I used to get writer's block / artist block all the time when I did fanfiction/fanart related works. I hated it... it really does kill creativity. :/

Ah okay. That's good enough for me then. Apparently that's what I thought too, before I started receiving some. It turns out, if people like your work enough, they will draw for you, and if they like you as a person, they will draw for you too. To have anyone draw my work makes me happy, to have someone who's actually better at art than me draw Estelle, Mae or another character makes me 10 times as happy. It makes me feel self fulfilled.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-06 22:05:05 +0000 UTC]

Ah, I don't think it dampens my mood. In fact I think that's why I have to write it. I'm such a goody two shoes most of the time, it's the only way I can escape. I've been writing dark pretty much my whole life so I don't think that'll change. Still, the message underlying my works are always positive, so I don't think it'll make anyone fall into a hole!

I know what you mean, about the names. I always go through about fifty names for protagonists before I settle on one. It's usually cause I don't like it, though, not them. It always takes me forever to find something that conveys everything about them that needs to be said. I have to agree with Estelle though - I don't much like Estrella. Estelle's much better. One character in particular, the narrator of the last novel in my planned series, went through soooooo many changes, physically, mentally, you name it. I just did not know who she was. She went from Allynna to Alais to Merrin (with a couple in between I can't remember now), blonde hair to red to black... and so much more. It was tiring. I think I've finally settled on her though.

Vocaloid sounds intriguing. I didn't even know that sort of thing existed! But yeah, it does sound like a breeding ground for bad writing habits, so I don't think I'd ever consider participating any time soon. Or ever.

Same, I always feel bad if I fail to reply to something. Yeah, good news (and bad) always travels fast in small towns. I bet you were exhausted XD

The worst writer's blocks I got were last year, in the transition from quasi-fanfic to entirely original. My problem was not within the fanfics, but getting out of it. Still entirely unhelpful. In fact, I think it was even worse, because it was completely distressing and making me want to GO BACK to fanfic type stuff.    I'm just glad I did get out eventually.

I'll just have to suck up to some of my favourite artists then! See if they'll draw for me. Of course, I'd have to put up my story first. XD I understand how that would make you feel happy. I don't even know how it would make me feel. In a dream, I suppose

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-07 00:40:07 +0000 UTC]

Ah, yeah... oh jeeze, I feel slightly embarrassed about that. haha, sorry for brushing up on such a topic. Yeah, back then, things weren't easy for me very much, so writing dark didn't help me at all. I do write dark still sometimes, but I usually keep it to myself... the pressure is always too high whenever I post something that is dark, so I'd rather just stay away from it these days. People aren't expecting dark works from me anyway, despite my works being dark by nature. I guess peer pressure does get to me sometimes...

Mae went through like, no name changes. But I knocked out her first name, Evette, and changed Mae to her first name. But her first name took forever to find, too. I got it from the internet. ;XD: I also did the same for Otto, who's first name is "Clarence" I knocked it off and used his middle name throughout the entire story, so much it's become his new first name. I  recently changed an old character's name of mine to Arietta Storm, from "Light-Storm" and "Marsh Mellows" (As an 7th grader I had weird names ) to Marianna Mel. I'm probably going to change their entire appearance too, if I ever decide to write about them again. Their story hinted on a fantasy comedy, but I might even change the genre.  (But keep fantasy of course... )

Vocaloids are intriguing. Sometimes the producers make excellent storylines for their songs, othertimes... not so much. But most of the time, the addicting catchy beats, the great lyrics, and the fantastic songs can make anyone want to create for it. Though stories are not as good of a thing to create in the Vocaloid universe, because you're essentially just borrowing a character's name and making up a story about them. So yeah, not the best creative outlet if you are a writer, though if you're an artist, you can create for PVs (but the viewers really empathize anime style works, since it originated in japan after all), which don't even have to be able the  vocaloids themselves! They can be about anything, really. Even simple things.

Oh I was... totally.

Ah, I know the feeling all too well~ I wanted to keep writing vocaloid related fanfics for the rest of my life, but I knew I had to move on because I was so disinterested in what I was writing about, and I no longer felt the need to write it. I got bored of it: I noticed the lack of improvement in my writing so I decided it would be best if I moved on, and I'm glad I did.

Hehe~ it's a nice feeling. So far, everyone who's drawn for me is a better artist in some way, shape or form. I simply support them, and they support me too. Plus it helps to find people who are new to deviant art and open up requests. Some people are super nice and are willing to draw for you.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-07 22:24:22 +0000 UTC]

Don't worry about it, it's fine. I think it's good to write something dark every now and then, if you don't write it often. Get it out of your system or something. XD It's probably therapeutic in some obscure way. 
'May' and its derivatives have been favourites of mine for a while. I've never used May, but I had a planned character for my major work who was to be Mey, and now I have Mae. I get some of my names from the internet, and make others up. Yep, again I like Mae and Otto better than Evette and Clarence. Wow, you did have some pretty weird names I think my names were generally pretty normal. I've always wondered if I should rewrite some of my older stories. I've seriously considered some of them. I don't know though, I feel as if doing that might make them lose something?
Eh, Vocaloid probably wouldn't have music I liked anyway. I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to music. So is the idea just that you make up a drawing or story based on the music? 
I was still improving as I was writing, and I was interested because it was my own spin on the work and I had to work hard on plotlines, characters, setting etc just like a totally original novel, I just wanted to stop being so directly inspired by stuff. XD I'm sure elements of what I love still show up, and that's normal, so I'm alright with it.
I don't think I'd ask anyone to draw for me, I'd just let them do it if they wanted to. It wouldn't feel right if they weren't into the characters and stuff Of course I'm a hypocrite and am thinking of opening up requests myself in a few months, haha. But maybe once I post my work people will like it enough to draw on their own initiative. It'd be nice to inspire people like that as well. 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-07 23:35:17 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, knowing me I have to get a lot of thoughts out of my system sometimes. Poetry is usually my #1 bad mood killer, next to dark storytelling. I hardly do draw dark art though. My style is way too cute for that.

I love "Mae" as a name, it's so pretty to me. "Otto" is nice too~ it reminds me of "Autumn" which is kind of funny. Yeah, I did make up some pretty unique and weirdly interesting names. I made up "Aichia' "Silver-wind" (who is actually a boy ) and "Dust-Flower" (Who is Light-Storm's sister) "Chirro" (I looked up "Churro" it's a Mexican based doughnut... ) and such. They're all from the same  story... which has a very interesting storyline about two elven tribes who end up having to leave their hometowns because of a volcano errupting, and somehow it was caused by Vanilla, the main villain? Vanilla... Chirro... I must have been one hungry 7th grader.

Well not always, you can pretty much make up whatever you like about the characters, it's free realm. Most people choose to make up pictures and stories based on the music videos, but you can also make up random tidbits about the vocaloids that you deem appropriate for their personalities. Many people make up things based on the "basis" of their personalities, such as "Rin can be evil, innocent or tough" Len can be "Wimpy or protective" Miku is usually "Innocent, spoiled, or all-knowing." Those are the most popular traits I've seen, but many people also come up with other ways to portray the vocaloids. Such as: Miku being "evil" or Len being "shy" or Rin being "overly hyperactive" I've seen personalities with every color of the rainbow being portrayed with the characters, even some that just don't fit the characters.

But yeah, it's one of those really interesting subcultural experiences. There's a song for everyone with vocaloid, in my opinion- though I deem myself opposite to what you've just described... I'll listen to everything except for rap, hiphop or country. (Though I don't mind country all that much... I absolutely despise rap and hip hop. ) But I grew up listening to vocaloid, and have been listening to vocaloid since 8th grade, but I no longer obsess over it like I did when I was younger. I've found good music to listen to, other than vocaloid these days, so vocaloid is just a dwindling trend for me.

All 3 people who drew my characters were interested in my characters based off of what I described them as or what they had seen of the story~ I do let people draw my characters for that reason. But I guess you're right- if they're not interested, why make them do it? It doesn't seem very logical...

I'm opening up requests myself in winter break. Last time, a bunch of people with characters they didn't even draw themselves requested me (they weren't on my watch list as well), and I was like: Mmmkay... so I totally wasn't really into it as much as I could be. I still drew them, but my heart really wasn't into it as much as it could have been... I  thought about just not doing requests again, but if the demand is huge with my watchers (I would love to draw some of my watcher's OCs for example)  then I would be more likely to open them up again. So far, one person wants to do a request... if more watchers want requests, I would be willing to draw for them. Good luck if you do requests, btw. I would totally request you myself. I absolutely adore your style.

I'm planning on next time simply saying: "Watchers only" because honestly, it went by so fast basically only 1 of my watchers had a chance to request, and I came to them first because they were in need of a request. I originally opened up 5 spots, but took 4 because I realized just how exhausting drawing pictures everyday was. I might do a poll sometime... to see how many people are interesting in requesting me.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-09 22:01:29 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, I cannot imagine your art being dark. I'm sort of skittering all over the place with style but it would probably lend itself to dark art, though I never really thought about that. Dark art doesn't seem as appealing to me as words. 

Yeah, I do quite like 'Otto'. Well, it reminds me of an otter. XD Ooh, they look awesome. How would you pronounce them? "Ay-kee-uh"? Two elven tribes leaving their home because of a volcano erupting? Sounds like something that happened in the Elder Scrolls games, except it was just one huge tribe that had to leave. Haha, yeah, sounds like your subconscious was hungry. I haven't truly made up that many... just the name of my narrator, Chalsédra Greyheart, though everyone just calls her Sédra ('say-druh') and another protagonist, Cael. I had inspiration for the other names, but those were the only two that popped into my head. 

Haha, wow, so it doesn't only encourage lack of originality, but it encourages stereotyping! XD I'm less and less impressed with this thing the more I hear about it! Still, I suppose it encouraged writing, so I can't condemn it too much.

I completely, completely agree with you about music. Rap, hip-hop and country were created purely to torture innocents. The only one I can even remotely stand is hip-hop, because I dance hip-hop, so instead of actually listening to it I analyse what it would be like to dance to it. But yeah, I hate those with a fiery passion. I also hate pop music. In general. So basically I can't listen to radios. XD I prefer old rock and metal, and alternative, and the kind of music you find on movie soundtracks (which is amazing to write to, by the way). It makes it very difficult to find people with my tastes, and to find good music.
 
I guess it just doesn't feel from the heart if their heart's not in it (well gee, I wonder why that would be...) But anyway, yeah, my point is that if you don't care, it loses something. At least that's what I've found with my own work. The longer I spend on a piece, the less I care, and the messier and just.... duller my work becomes. I'm having that problem now, actually. Luckily for me, I can get very easily into someone's character, if they're interesting, just from a description, so requests shouldn't be too hard, as long as nobody requests me to draw some kind of horrid Mary Sue (I can see it now...   )

Yeah, I completely understand not being into that. That's fair enough. Though I think I won't make it necessary for people to be watchers if I do end up doing it. I think I'd be alright with fan-art. I do enough of it myself, though it's usually characters I designed myself, but I understand wanting to see a character in someone's particular style. It can be very interesting to see people's take on canon characters. I might request you too. Though I don't know who I'd ask you to draw. Haha, I'd probably make you choose. XD
We'll see.
Ah, you would? Thank you so much!   Well, there's one potential slot filled! I don't know when I'd open them though. Still not comfortable in my style, and I'd promised myself I'd wait until I could be sure I was going to give a requester what they expected.

If I were to open them though, I'd probably put out a journal beforehand like you did, warning watchers that requests were opening, so they'd have a chance to put in a request before others did. I don't want to condemn people to watching me XD I've already lost two watchers so far (one left dA, one watched me for my progress and apparently I stopped progressing fast enough) so I'd prefer it if people watched me because they wanted to, on their own initiative. I'd probably open 3 slots to begin with... and I'd probably find it hard enough to fill those XD

I'm going away today, as you might have seen in my journal, which means I won't have time to critique Netheron for a while. I've done the fourth chapter and I'm halfway through the fifth, but for some reason it's having trouble getting on my USB to put it on this computer to post to dA. I think I've figured out what to do, so I'll get it to you on the day I get home. I'm enjoying it so far!
Good luck with requests, if I don't get back before they open. I'm sure you'll do great

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-10 02:01:15 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, I don't really see myself drawing dark either... though there have been times (not many) where I certainly have.  I drew in a much different style back then, though... though still very cute. Imagine my art being dark... haha;; that's really hard to picture...

Otto is a very appealing name to me too! It does, doesn't it? Otto the Otter... try to get that out of your head.

Aichia is pronounced "Eye-Chee-Yah" and Chirro is pronounced "Cheer-oh" I tend to do rather direct pronunciations for my characters, it's quite fun. They both aren't even words.   I've probably made up more than just that, but those are the words that come to me at first mind. I should give them meanings too~ that might be a lot of fun. Yeah, it does sound like elder scrolls! Though I think the plot line is slightly different... Dust-flower is kidnapped by Vanilla, and forced to be a demon servant. She turns into a demon-elf, and when Storm comes to rescue her, she's completely changed, so the two sisters are forced  to fight against each other.  Light-Storm is a demon slayer, so she's forced to hunt her own sister... but that was all I  ever got to in the actual story. I never completed it, so I was sad. I had a lot of great ideas.

Haha stereotyping;; definitely true. I would never write a vocaloid fic ever again. Though I don't think it's true about every vocaloid song... there's sometimes character songs, a music video based on a character. The producers produce quality works and sometimes work extremely hard to produce their songs, which truly is what is captivating about the vocaloids in the first place. What's super interesting, is it gives a chance for the producer to shine, verses the singer. The producer can write a melody and have the vocaloids sing whatever they want. So vocaloid songs tend to cross over sections we humans would never want to sing about, or never have really given a thought to sing. You know how all those pop singers sing about sex, or sing about how pretty that girl is? A vocaloid might sing about the universe, or true love, or what it's like to be alone... or some other really interesting songs. They might also tell a story, which I also really like. Just imagine if you could write a song about anything, even a story... that's truly what I love about vocaloid. The style of music too, is something I really enjoy...

I hate pop sometimes too... Not all the time, though. I prefer listening to jazz, classical music, electronica, chill out, techno, cultural music from other  countries. I also like alternative, and rock. I do like some of the classical rock music that my dad listens to as well. Dubstep is nice too, when I want something more extreme. I love it when they combine classical music (like the violin) with techno music.   Which is sometimes what vocaloid is like, but with a piano and electric guitar. It's also a lot of up and down, super fast  hyper hyper music at times. There's very little vocaloid slow songs, but there's some waltz music if that counts. I don't know what it is about me, but I love high pitched, super fast music. I never slow down... never. I'm mostly a computer-based music type of person, but I still love the classics. Beethoven is epic. So is those nutcracker melodies...

Metal is not so much my thing, though I have listened to Vocaloid metal if that counts... (I.e. Screaming high pitched death metal Miku... ) I love musicals as well. Can't get enough of some of their melodies~ and I also really love soundtracks from video games. Skyrim, Morrowind especially. I listened to the original Sims music for a while too, strangely enough. It's just super catchy. Told you... I listen to everything. I wouldn't mind listening to movie soundtracks as well... sounds interesting~

I easily get into other people's characters as well... I love drawing other people's  characters~ though I do wonder about my perseverance at times. If I'm determined enough, I can draw or do anything I want. If I'm totally into the character, I'll get them done super fast. (which is what happened to basically all of the characters I drew, I did them all super fast, 1 day each, with all day of hard work. It was great drawing practice. ) My style allows me some great lengths to get things done quickly, and with good effort put in. Though I do get concerned that I'm not putting in enough effort for the  characters each... so maybe this time around, I'll do a little bit extra.

Ahh, I would love to draw one of your characters! I'd be honored... x3 The whole reason I had watchers only, is because if it's someone I watch, I'll probably put more effort in, than if I just made it for someone who I'll probably never see again. I want my works to be filled with effort, not without. It's also because I tend to think that people who watch me would appreciate my artwork more than just someone who stops by. That's just me though I totally think if people like my art, they should watch me verses just watching me to get art from me. That's just me though.

I've yet to lose watchers myself... (or so I think) Well, one big-time writer did watch me, and then he got angry at me because I may have posted something offensive to him, though I didn't  see what made him angry, so he unwatched me and in return I unwatched him and his group. I personally think he's this way for everyone, because I've seen his rudeness towards people in groups, and also on the forums, but I'd already watched his group before I saw the comments. Luckily, I handled things as smooth as I could. I personally think your progress has been amazing! Though, I certainly wouldn't unwatch you if you somehow reverted back to anime, or your progress had slowed at all. You're a neat person.

I filled in 4 slots last time, but with your style, you should have no problem filling in those spaces. I originally had 5 open, but no takers for the 5th... so I simply closed requests. It went by pretty fast too... only like 3-4 days, if not a week. I was done before I knew it. If you want to put me on a waiting list, you certainly can. I don't mind waiting a long time either, take all the time you need.

Thank you! Good luck!

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-22 23:05:27 +0000 UTC]

Haha, I can't imagine your art being dark, I really can't. It would take a better imagination than I have. XD

Otto the Otter. It has such an adorable ring to it. I will forever picture Otto as an otter now. 

Haha, wow, yes, they're very direct. I've been around obscure languages too long, I never pronounce things phonetically anymore... which can be annoying. No, that's nothing like the Elder Scrolls XD Though it does sound very interesting, you do have some good ideas! Sad that you didn't finish it though, that would have been a good read.

That thing about the vocaloids giving attention to the producers is a really good idea, I think. Also the part about the lyrics actually being meaningful and crossing human boundaries. I really like the ideas of those, and it makes me sad that they couldn't think of a better way to do that without the problems it has. Though sometimes I wonder if that's actually possible.

Classical rock? I didn't know that was a thing, though I've probably heard some of it myself. I'm not the hugest fan of dubstep, it's a little too extreme for me. I prefer the soft, instrumental wordless music rather than that. Or the epic instrumental for trailers. I have heard some alright dubstep though. Hybrid music is very hit and miss with me. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I usually listen to music when I write, so I prefer to get in one mood from the song, and I have no idea what kind of scene would suit classical music combined with techno XD A very interesting scene, I'd imagine. Fair enough about liking high-pitched, fast music though. My friend listens to stuff like that and I understand where you're coming from. I'm not a huge fan of the old classicals... my sister does ballet so I hear too much of them. I do like some, but I prefer the newer 'classicals', like stuff by Two Steps from Hell (classified as classical in iTunes, I disagree but still). 

I don't really like death metal, or screamos. I prefer the old, classic metal, like stuff by Metallica. I LOVE the Elder Scrolls soundtracks, they're some of my favourite albums. Actually I was listening to the Morrowind album while critiquing your story! It started off when I spent $30 to buy the Skyrim album on iTunes, and went from there XD Movie soundtracks are generally very similar to game ones, so I get into both quite easily. 

Yeah, I agree. It's so much more motivating to draw when you have a special love for the character. There are so many guys from TV shows who I'd love to draw, but I'm afraid to because I haven't drawn many men. Still, I reckon I will someday, because I love them so much XD I'm such a perfectionist, and realism takes me forever to draw and render, and the time it takes me to finish a drawing has grown insanely since I started digital art. When I first discovered it, I completed five drawings in a week. Now it takes me a couple of weeks to finish one. It's kind of frustrating, but I think I'm better at it now, so if time = quality, I'm happy. 

Aww, thank you. I'm glad to hear that. Gives me hope that my story characters will be as likeable. I completely understand wanting to draw for your watchers. If I was a less selfish person, I'd probably be the same, but really I just want to draw. And yeah, I definitely agree that a watcher would appreciate it more than a random stranger. I mean, they watch you, right? They've gotta like something about your work (surely?). I'd never request something from someone if I didn't like their art, but I fear that's just me being my usual picky self. I'm afraid that some people might be less... standoffish XD

Oh, that doesn't sound fair of him. I hate it when famous people get big heads. It's like 'No, you're not better than everyone else'. It's good that you handled it well though. Thanks, it's good to know that whatever happens, I'll have at least one watcher! :')

I'm going to be pretty busy over the holidays, so I'm not sure I'll be opening requests any time soon. I'm also just about to try a new 'painterly' style, so again, I'd prefer to hold off until I know whether I'm going to keep it or not. It probably won't work out, my style experiments never do, but we'll see.  

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-23 05:22:20 +0000 UTC]

Thank you~ Funny thing is, I came up with that idea when I was only 14 years old. Maybe one day, I should rewrite it and twist it up some more. Chirro was a vampire merchant, Aichia the flamboyant cat girl, Light-Storm the enthusiastic demon slayer, Dust-flower the gothic sister, Silver-wind the brainy young scientist, Marsh the tomboy elf... It was an adorable, witty story.

What I really love about it, is how there's something for everyone in Vocaloid. If you don't like the character vocaloid songs, search for a story without vocaloids, or if you enjoy rock music, search for rock music. They've got numerous covers for songs as well. Yeah, it's quite a shame that the characters have to come across as 1 dimensional at times- but usually the songs, there's a key storyline, plot, and a key event. It's definitely not boring. They've also got a selection of a lot of really interesting plot ideas for songs... there's some really great things about vocaloids. I haven't went vocaloid song hunting for a while ever since nicosound went down...  I practically know all the songs by now, so for someone like me, it's boring listening to the same music all the time. Which is why I've been listening to a lot of different kinds of music as of late on pandora, or grooveshark.

Never heard of classical rock? Wow, I'm shocked. My dad listens to a classical rock station all the time on his way to and from work, he's always pointing out songs to me. I like some of them, not all of them. I love the nutcracker's melodies, because I was in ballet when I was in second grade. x3 For a brief time at least, it was fun while I would experience it... but these days I'm too clumsy for ballet. I end up listening to pretty much anything when I write. I usually don't listen to dubstep though... it's too distracting. I listen to it when I draw, though. I actually found out about dubstep through vocaloid! Vocaloid dubstep is 100% automated music, with no humans involved. (Other than tuning) I find that fact to be super cool! x3

Yeah, Screamo's were not really my thing. I don't know why I had that vocaloid album, perhaps it was because it was there, and I craved something to listen to. Listening to Miku sing death metal is hilarious. Very different from what I usually listen to... I actually am more likely to listen to techno, than rock or alternative, just because I cater to it more.  I really love the Elder Scrolls soundtrack as well! Especially Morrowind's soundtrack... the main theme... so addicting. x3 I just hum to the music whenever I play Morrowind~ It's such a great song.

I hardly ever draw men, but I've become more in practice with such, ever since drawing Otto. (Who is still semi-girly, but whatever. ) I have no interest in drawing men, but I draw them anyway, because it's good practice. I'm sure one day you'll get the chance! Yeah, drawing men is super hard, especially if you're female. It helps to do a lot of art studies. I'm sure one day you'll get there.

You're very welcome~ I'll definitely consider taking good care of your characters if I ever do get the chance to draw them~ I'm much more  enthusiastic if I"m drawing for someone I've talked to, verses a complete stranger who may or may not have good intentions of me drawing them something.

On a whole: I've started doing requests for people. It's a new thing for me. I've never done requests in my life until since a few months ago. I wanted to in the past, but didn't have enough people requesting. Plus I was scared for how it would  turn out, but people are nice whether you think it turns out well or not. So far, I've had no one tell me to redo something they don't like. But I only want people to request me if they really like my work, verses requesting me because I'm available to request. Which is why, for me, I think about the requests being watcher's only.

Yeah, it was pretty unjust of him to do that. He's a lot older than me too, you'd think he would behaved a little more  civil. But perhaps he has stuff going in his life that is tough, and he's the type to take it out on other people, letting fame get to his head and thinking he can be a troll and hurt someone's feelings while picking a fight. I can't speak for him, but I can at least guess that's what's going on. I've read some really interesting articles about it myself...  like people who befriend those who harass them, and they turn out to be civilized people in need of help. It's weird. ._.


I don't go away very easily. I'm a clingy person by nature.

I'm not opening requests either for a while, perhaps after the month of my surgery, if I'm not too busy. ._. Good luck with your style experimenting!

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-28 01:08:42 +0000 UTC]

Haha, yes, you should definitely rewrite it! No pressure or anything, but that would be epic. Very adorable and witty XD

It is good that they cater for all tastes. Most anything nowadays doesn't. As long as the plot isn't boring and characters aren't dead dull or cliched, I can usually handle most stories. I'd probably be okay with a lot of vocaloids. I listen to a pretty good range of music even within my own tastes, so I don't usually go looking for other genres, but I'm always looking for new bands (which is hard to find, considering I like either orchestras or old music XD)

I did ballet for a year too, when I was three XD I didn't like it much, and when I was eight I did jazz/hip-hop instead, which I still do, but I reckon I'd be pretty clumsy as well if I tried to pick up ballet again. Especially since everyone my age is amazing by now. Oh gosh, dubstep while writing, that would be horrific! Imagine trying to write a sad scene... I do find that cool, no humans involved in vocaloid music, but at the same time, it kind of takes away. One of the things I don't like about modern music is that actual genuine people are directly involved less and less, and it removes some of the music's soul, for me. 

Morrowind's main theme... I have all of the Elder Scrolls themes from Morrowind, right up to Elder Scrolls Online, and Morrowind's is definitely my favourite. Maybe it's something to do with Dunmer being my favourite race, I don't know, but that theme is just phenomenal. It's so strangely innocent and sweet as compared to the rest. I love how each theme perfectly complements the setting. I suppose that's the point, but it does its job well.

Haha, Otto's not too girly. I prefer pretty men to rugged, handsome men anyway XD I will get practice drawing men one day... lots of practice. I'll have to draw all my novel characters, and since I have seven main characters, and only the narrator is female, I'm sure I'll get loads of practice with them! 

Oh, you're lucky then, to have not had anyone ask you to redo something and everyone be nice about the end product. I've heard some absolute horror stories about requesting and commissioning gone wrong. In that light, taking requests only from people you know is probably the best way to go about it. As I've said before, I'd only request someone if I liked their work, but I know there are people who just want free stuff, so you've done quite well! I'm willing to take upset customers though, if it means I can meet more people (preferably who aren't just after free art). 

Yeah, I guess it's just better to hope that that was behind his reasoning :/ It's easier to understand if that was the case, but he was still out of line. Yeah, human nature is a weird thing. That's why I love writing about it so much!

Style experimenting's going well so far, as are my critiques of Netheron. I should be done soon, I've just been away over Christmas. Good luck with surgery! 

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-29 05:28:39 +0000 UTC]

Hehe, maybe one day~

There's definitely some classical orchestrated music in vocaloid. One producer I know who goes by "Oster Project" sometimes does  orchestrated music. She did remakes of classical stories such as "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz"  into really cute, short musicals.  A lot of the orchestrated music I hear is more modernized, fast paced, and jumpy, (and a lot of it is mixed musical instruments, combining electronic music and classical music together to create a whole new sound. It's super interesting to hear. But there is definitely the occasional vocaloid slow song, and that slow song generally has a electronic beat behind it, but still, there is a lot of variety in the genres of music that vocaloid proposes, because there is a lot of variety in it's performers. So the music itself is a really rich, cultural thing, and it's wonderful music to listen to when you write stories (sometimes) but again, there's those people who attempt to create stories based on the vocaloid's image, and it's much more of a drawing, composing and singing type of dynamic than a writing thing.

I would rather hear and listen to the stories being told through the lyrics of the songs, than read a short story about a vocaloid with who-knows-what. Some of vocaloid's songs are simply beauitful and stunning (I can think of a sci fi one about a robot and it's master, but the name escapes me... ) then there's the wild series called "Kagarou Project" which is based on it's manga. Very different, very extreme and very dark. (At least in it's songs) It's a rock ballad, but it's hard to describe... I must mention that a lot of vocaloid's songs are in Japanese because they are by Japanese producers, but there is English producers (Such as Circus-P who does a sort of popish techno style I like his music a lot, but I don't think you'd like him. He did Circus Monster, which was a huge hit, and now he's making money from it.  He's around the same age as me. )

But yeah, that's the basics of it. I rambled off a little bit there... I wouldn't say a lot of the stories are cliched, though some of them can be very dark. There's some parts of vocaloid that do encourage stereotyping (such as those vocaloid talk videos, that are purely for entertainment) but there's other parts of vocaloid that are true genuine song making, and some of the songs are very chilling. I've gotten goosebumps from listening to a good vocaloid song.

I don't take dancing class of any sort, but I did take choir class for a long time. I still think there can be a lot of soul in a song, despite having no human parts in it: the soul is in the message being placed, but I get what you mean too. Sometimes having music that takes advantage of automating everything, or having mainstream pop music hit the charts because the person sounds "futuristic" and "hip" gives off the wrong vibes, and there's a huge lack of soul in that kind of music. (Songs about belittling others, becoming rich and famous, sex, or partying, do get very very old after a while. I'm lucky to be listening to Gotye and La Roux (who is almost mainstream, but not quite) and Frou Frou, instead of Rhianna, Beyonce, or especially Miley Cyrus (oh do not get me started on her... haha ). I have a friend who listens to Miley, and I don't know WHY she does it, because Miley is just about  THE worse singer out there, period.

I just love all of the themes of the elder scrolls. It's rich music, and pleasant to listen to. Morrowind is my favorite soundtrack, with my second being Skyrim, and my third being Oblivion. They are perfect for story writing. Actually, I've listened to Electronica writing Netheron before. Singer included. Even Techno... I get so zoned in writing, it doesn't bug me. My words don't even trail off into the song lyrics. When I'm in the zone, I am in the zone, and nothing breaks my focus. I don't get how I do it... sometimes I even play the same song 50 times, and it still doesn't bug me. Hehe...

I like to tease him in that respect~ Otto seems to be a pretty man, fairly attractive guy, beautiful by nature, but lean and skinny instead of bulky and built. Alexander is definitely bulky and built, but I lack the skills to draw him portrayed in that manner, so he gets a slight muscular built set up. Maybe one day I'll draw him more bulky and burly, but that's a long ways off... besides the fact, I also prefer those slightly feminine looking guys in fiction (and perhaps real life too) I've never been a big fan of facial hair.

There's always a reason for everything. Though that is true, some people are just built that way: to be mean spirited. I do like to think there's a reason behind everything, even mean spiritedness... it's probably why I did so well in psychology class. I love psychology.

That's good... I'll be patiently waiting~ Thank you!~ I'll be glad to get it done.

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2014-12-30 23:34:24 +0000 UTC]

I don't know whether I like true classical though - I like the dynamic, epic types of classical rather than the old type of stuff you see in ballets. I'm pretty sure I've heard some of that electrical/classical music, and liked it, but the electronic part has to be harmonious and generally toned down XD I love cultural sounding music, it is really great to write to! So I suppose there's really two types of music in vocaloid - the type for telling stories, and the type that tells a story in itself.

I definitely agree, a story told through lyrics is often more powerful than a mediocre short story. I think I've heard of Kagarou Project, actually, though nothing more than its name. Oh, maybe because it's very dark. Sounds like the sort of thing I'd hear about. XD I actually love it when songs are foreign. One of my favourite bands is Icelandic and I can't understand a single word of their songs, but I love them so much for that. There's something so mysterious about it, not knowing what the song's really about. Gives you a lot of freedom. Oh, talk videos? Eh. I couldn't find any recordings of Circus-P, but if it's popish-techno then you're right, I'm probably bound not to like it.

I did choir for a while in primary school, and I'm still told that I'm quite a good singer, but it's not really my thing to create music, haha. I was always horrible at playing instruments. I definitely agree, the soul is in the message, but I do love the feel of a genuinely human song. Yes, you understand! For me, pop music tries too hard to be hip and cool and forgets what music is really about. It's just gratuitous human ambition manifested in music. -.- I can't stand those three artists, don't get me started on Miley Cyrus either XD She's an awful singer and she's a bad influence, to be honest. Gratuitous human ambition? Yeah that's her. She always wanted to be seen as more than she was. I hate people like that.

I agree, I love the soundtracks in that order too. I really need to get my hands on Elder Scrolls Online's soundtrack, the theme is great. I could not do that. Writing to electronic *shudders* Perhaps cause I write fantasy, and electronic music would just pull me right out of the mood. Sometimes I write to lyric songs. I don't think I've ever accidentally written the lyrics before, but sometimes they might... inspire me XD I usually delete them when I re-draft though, it bugs me when I see a familiar phrase, even a couple of words. Oh, yeah, I put songs on repeat when I write or draw. I know some people can't stand it but I like it. I can't listen to a song just once. Once, while drawing, I listened to Nerevar Rising 103 times in a row without realising.

I am not keen to attempt my bulky guys. That would not be fun. I'm not sure I can imagine bulky guys in your style either, haha. I didn't like facial hair, and then I saw Aidan Turner XD

Fair enough, psychology is awesome. Useful, too.

I only have the epilogue to go, should be done later today! Keen to know how it ends!

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Zivylla In reply to Arasteia [2014-12-31 01:41:31 +0000 UTC]

One classical combined with electronica artist I like is Lindsey Stirling who does the violin combined with rock music and sometimes dubstep. I really loved her Phantom of the Opera Melody. I'm unsure how you would like her (I don't think you would, because the dubstep is very vibrant in her works, but the classical is also there, and also very vibrant. ) She's an instrumental artist, so most of her works are done instrumentally.

Kagarou Project is very dark in lyrics, but the actual manga (which I tried reading at one point but never finished) is just like any other manga, but slightly dark. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONyfbD… I think this is one of the very first songs that came out for Kagarou Project, but you can see what I mean. The lyrics are intense, it follows a story, and the story is intense. I didn't follow it that closely when I was still finding vocaloid songs, but it was there. There's also a bit of electronic mixed with rock in there, but none the less, it still was mostly rock.

Circus-P can be found here on his channel on youtube: www.youtube.com/user/VocaCircu… but yeah, he's very mainstream, but his original songs aren't half bad for my tastes in music. He does listen to things like "Perfume" which is a japanese electro band I also listen to, but he also listens to Lady Gaga and the likes. I did really like "Circus Monster" though, which was basically what made him famous. But yeah, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like him, he tends to go a more direct route with his songs and make them more like American songs. It's yet another style some producers use their vocaloid songs as, the lesser known style of making songs.  Every so and so, he tries the way the japanese handle their songs, but it's become unlikely that it will become his ways of doing songs. (I've followed him before he became popular because I liked his music, and I still do... but he hasn't updated for a long while. )

I've sang in front of thousands of people before, twice. It's breathtaking. I love singing, but I had to quit choir class because my teacher kept further embarrassing me. I once sang an old rock song, and completely regretted it, I got laughed at, mocked, and the teacher  did not help me by further mocking me. So I quit and did art instead. But my reason behind doing the rock song, is because I had such a hard time finding that right song to sing, because back then: my music tastes were completely obscene and I hated everything to do with American music, and I didn't know about any songs except for Vocaloid ones, and I really don't think singing in butchered Japanese was really a good thing. So I asked my dad for a song, and it was honestly the biggest mistake I've ever done in my life. ._. To this day, I hate that song every time it comes on the radio.

For me it's not that bad to write to electronica, as long as it's good music. Listening to La Roux while writing stories isn't bad for example, while listening to Katy Perry is like poisoning your ears. I find myself being more productive listening to music that is currently my favorite jam, verses listening to music that can be dry or mundane, such as rap or hiphop. As long as it has soul, it doesn't matter even if it's techno, chillout, or japanese electropop, if it motivates me, it gets writing done. (Which is probably very strange for some people, because I know a lot of writers think differently than that... I've not heard of anyone who does what I do, and I don't know if it's effecting my writing in bad ways, but music doesn't seem to effect my outcome, at least not in a way I can foresee. )

Neither am I to be honest, which is why Alexander was never drawn too bulky looking. I like drawing my females far too much for to draw bulky young men, and I'm not really interested in fawning over celebrities or guys in real life, simply because it just doesn't seem right to me. Many people would all too well, always fantasize about bulky men... but I actually would feel uncomfortable doing such, because I'm not even remotely interested in muscular men as a whole. I don't know what it is about me, but I'm just not really interested in that kind of stuff. Romance has always been one of those topics that just don't seem to interest me that well.

Awesome! I'll be patiently waiting as always~

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Arasteia In reply to Zivylla [2015-01-01 00:23:51 +0000 UTC]

I Googled Lindsey Stirling and yeah, I think I would really like her stuff but for the dubstep. It started off really promising and then got into the electronic stuff. I'll say this for her - she has really good taste in games! Oh wow, I actually saw her on a Dragon Age: Inquisition ad, before I knew it was for Dragon Age (I thought it would be for a car or something). But I really really liked that music (no dubstep, yay!) Hey, she also did something for Assassin's Creed as well... will have to listen to that... It's pretty good. She mixes the themes of 2 and 3, which sounds epic. See, I can like stuff when there's little or no dubstep. XD I quite like Roundtable Rival, that was acceptable XD Haha, I just listened to her Skyrim cover... I forgot how much I love that theme song... and how I know every word in English. 

I couldn't sit through all of that Kagarou Project song, the singing was absolutely horrendous to my ears (though the music at the very start wasn't all bad). But yeah, I do see what you mean about the lyrics - they were pretty good, for the singing. -.- What even was that? Then again, I realised I'm quite particular with my taste in singing voices. They generally have to sound like grunge or I don't like it.

Yeah, again, I don't like the singing for Circus Monster. I mean, I don't like the music much either, but luckily for me I'm able to listen to a lot of electronic music objectively because of my dancing, but I can't make myself like that type of singing. Ah well, to each their own, I say. I'm impressed by his bravery to try the Japanese style approach. That would be really difficult to do successfully, I think, since it's kind of monopolised by the Japanese XD

Thousands of people? Gosh, where? Oh really? They mocked you for singing an old rock song? That sucks! I wouldn't survive in a choir like that, old rock songs are all I'll sing! Can I ask what song it was?  I understand why you'd hate it though. And in my honest opinion, you don't need an excuse to sing a good old rock over the American pop you get nowadays.

Haha, yes, that's exactly what listening to Katy Perry is like! I generally get motivated by music that suits the scene, so I might listen to an epic, fast-paced instrumental with lots of drums and stuff for a battle scene, or a slow, gentle and harmonic piece with like violins and harps and stuff for a death scene. I'll often listen to exotic, cultural music for scenes in cities. It really all depends. I have a specific playlist that I write and draw to - it has about eighty songs on it at the moment XD I used to listen to a lot of old rock when I was writing, before I discovered lyric-less soundtrack music, but not so much anymore. I don't know an awful lot of other writers, so I don't really know what other people do. 

I agree, I much prefer drawings girls to guys in general. I never used to fawn over male celebrities, now I just take them in as physical depictions of my story characters. So basically all my male characters' appearances are based off celebrities I found attractive. XD I can't help it, I have this obsessive need to make everything that I love mine in some sort of way. I have so many fandom OCs that nobody knows about, it's mad. It's a kind of guilty pleasure, I suppose. A lot of them get turned into original characters in my stories anyway. But I don't hone in on muscular guys, no way, I often find it disgusting. I've never been a romantic either XD

Finished it, it was great!

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