Find your carrot!

I recently heard the term “carrot and stick” in reference to motivation. Basically it’s all about motivating yourself through a series of reward and punishment, it can also refer to achieving more through reward depending on the context of  the idiom. I might be off on that seeing as I only recently learnt what it meant but the point being is that it got me thinking about motivation in relation to work.

I have been working a lot lately, with my next comic illustration gig just starting up, my old job with “Wyvern” coming to a close, and my regular hours at the comic store during the Holiday season. My caffeine intake is up dramatically and my amount of down time has significantly decreased. It can be hard to stay motivated these days when all I want to do is play a video game, enjoy a meal at my kitchen table and get a good nights sleep. If I want to complete my work and pay my bills I know I need to keep going.

Just knowing you have to get something done isn’t always enough to keep you going, and I find the whole “carrot and stick” method doesn’t always work for everyone. Whenever I reward myself with a “break” I find myself having an even harder time getting back into the flow, especially when I am in the middle of a project.

I’m the type of person that needs to brew a pot of coffee, sit down and zone out for a few hours till I get done what I need to get done. Breaks distract me and leave me feeling even more drained than I was when I started. Especially since my breaks usually consist of doing household chores. A break doesn’t feel like a real break when you spend it cleaning floors.

So what do I do to keep myself motivated? If rewarding myself doesn’t work, what about punishments? If I don’t finish project on time do I just take my break away? Well yeah, but that’s less of a punishment and more of a necessity if I want to finish my project and get paid. Stop myself from seeing my partner so I can finish my work? I only see him once a week due to distance and honestly I think that’s what keeps me sane. I don’t want to confine myself to a straight jacket just yet, I’m trying to delay that till I’m at least in my mid-forties.

I often find the best way to keep myself motivated is by comparing myself to others.

I know, I know. I’ve said to never compare yourself to others on a few different occasions but I feel like this comparison is a bit different. I do it in a less self-deprecating sort of way.

One of my favourite things to do is listen to a podcast or documentary detailing other artists and their creative process and then take notes whenever I hear something that fires me up. My favourite one actually comes from a Jack Kirby documentary;

Jack could complete a comic a week.

An entire pencilled comic in one week. Now, I’m not saying that I want to work at that rate right away. This man was a pioneer and I realize he is a legend in comic circles . He was well-known for his work ethic. My point is, I know that doing a comic in a week is possible while maintaining a consistent product. I may not be at that level yet but I know it’s achievable. That’s the point. Knowing that if I work hard enough I can get there.

I’m still starting out and learning more and more about my art, but I know where I want to end up and I’ll keep that in my sight.

If I ever forget what I want, or need a push towards where I need to be I just replay one of my motivators and it gets me fired up.  Seeing something I want always works, and this extends to everything.

If I need to spend a day cleaning and organizing my work station I’ll look up artist work stations on image search and once I get the feeling of wanting what I am seeing it’ll make me want to work towards having that. In other words, I want to clean and organize the ever-living-fiddely out of everything I touch to make everything as streamline and efficient as possible as I work.

Seeing what is possible and working towards it. That’s what keeps me motivated. I want what others have and sitting around, staring at the ceiling will get me nothing.

Well, it works for me. The Carrot and Stick method may work you, or maybe you have another way of firing up. Everyone is different and we all have different things, but if you’re anything like me, competitive workaholic with a need for recognition, then maybe try this method.  If not then try finding your carrot (see what I did there? It’s the title of the blog post. It’s all connected). Find something that keeps you going through the long days, you’re bound to have something that’ll help you.

Well folks, that pretty much sums it all up in a pretty little coffee  and ink soaked package. No matter how you keep yourself motivated always remember that time is a factor and there is only so much you can do in a day. Don’t beat yourself up too much if you can’t fit everything into one day. Don’t let it discourage you and don’t let yourself become your own worst enemy when it comes to work motivation.

Till next time folks, stay Tobly awesome.

I know I will.

 

Character naming conventions

I am completely the last person to talk to about this, and I know it. I have a belief that there is no wrong way to name a character. I mean obviously Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way is a terrible name and we all know that, but I think that’s a bit overly obvious.
Whether you name your characters to mean certain things, such as giving your main character a name that means “Hero”, naming a character after people or things you like, or naming them based on the way the name sounds. They are all valid, it’s your character and you should feel free to name them in anyway you so choose. Having said that, the way you name your character should reflect the type of story you are trying to tell. I’m not telling you to go out and name your character Victor Bedlam Price to mirror how spooky your story is, but maybe think twice before naming them something comic-esque like Sue Storm.
Having said that, there are genres where dumb naming conventions totally work and are acceptable. Fantasy and sci-fi are generally top of the ladder there, as well as comedies. Or if you really want to lack any sort of creativity, write a young adult novel about a young girl with a weird name like Tapioca Jones or Butterscotch Fennly, who falls in love and whatever with some sort of mythical creature guy. Seriously though the amount of names like that in young adult fiction is ridiculous and these people should never be allowed to name their own children if this is how they name their characters.

I’m ranting though, back on track!
Genre’d names! I personally like naming character within the fantasy/sci-fi genre, specifically the steam punk genre, because a lot of the names that I end up enjoying are completely acceptable in those sorts of stories! For example; I have a character named Jasper Thorn. Let’s face it, it’s an old man sounding name to most people. I personally enjoy the first name Jasper and I have always associated it with wisdom due to some old bible mumbo-jumbo. Also, Thorn is a weird ass last name, like seriously, who even? However, they sound nice together in my head and to me the name matches the character quite nicely.
As a side note: Thorn is the family name from the movie The Omen… So it is a real last name that’s been used before. Granted that it was used in a movie about Satans spawn but whatever.
Now I know for a fact that I could never get away with a name like “Jasper Thorn” in any sort of story that takes itself too seriously, just like a name like Kyle Andrews wouldn’t fit in Lord of the Rings. It’s just knowing what names will mesh well with your story in the long run.
“Yeah these are my main characters Kyle, Greg and Sir Archibald Grey the 3rd….”
A characters name should not only mesh well with the nature of your story but it should also flow with the names of the characters around them. Nothing is more jarring then reading a story where everyone has super cool fantasy names and then some guy named Bob Green shows up. What the hell Bob? Did you not get the memo? We were all planning on having super ballin’ hard to pronounce elf names, you can’t just throw off the squad like that dude.

On the note of hard to pronounce elf names; As a general rule when “creating” names for a character, never ever, ever name them something you can’t pronounce. If you want to name your character Eilallyn that’s totally cool but be prepared for the questions on pronunciation. They will happen and you can’t just wing that on the fly. Language has a structure, even made up ones. Try deciding first if this made up name is from any particular made up culture, if you have built your world properly then it probably is. Is this made up culture based on any cultures in our own world? If so maybe start by researching names relevant to that culture and observe how they are pronounced. Go from there. It is ten times easier to form fantasy names when you have a solid base to start with. You don’t want to name a character Tom if their from a made up culture based on a language that doesn’t have a T in their alphabet. So do your research…trust me, it helps.

Make sure to check up on the time era your character is supposed to be from. Call me crazy but I don’t think Chad was terribly popular names back in the 1900’s. Look at the names of people, real people. Observe how their culture and time era influence the way they are named. At the same time I think we can all agree that we have more than enough British Williams running around in stories. Explore and put aside a night to just sit back and do some good old fashion research. Research. Research and Research. Then when you’re done…maybe research some more.

I lied, this is the last thing. Make sure that when you name your characters you aren’t naming them something dumb. Just because a name sounds pretty doesn’t mean it’s perfect, it could mean “useless fish man”. Double check that. Especially if you’re trying to use names from other cultures. Babynames.com is your bestie, use them frequently and appreciate them. Never let them go.

Okay. I think I have actually covered everything. Naming a character can be a difficult process and sometimes, in an effort to be unique or creative, we forget to apply logic to our naming conventions. Just get to know your character, know where they are from, flesh it all out, do some research. The name will come to you.
Another personal post will be coming soon. I have a ton written up it’s just all about deciding which ones I want to post when.
Anyway guys, thanks for reading.
Till next time, stay Tobly awesome
I know I will

Finding inspiration.

I’ve had a few people come to me in my store and say stuff like;
“You’re so lucky that ideas just come to you,”
“It must be so easy for you,”
“You must have quite the imagination,”
Not all of this is %100 true.
It’s true that I’ve had an overactive imagination since I was little, but that usually does go hand in hand with ADD so that’s really nothing overly special. I do often have, at the very least, four solid ideas floating around in my head on any given day, week or month. Neither of these facts mean that these ideas comes easy to me though(or that they’re all good) and I really wanted to talk to everyone today about inspiration and where ideas come from.
You see, when a mama and a papa love each other very much…..
Just fuckin with you.
Gravitating away from the birds and the bees and moving into what I find inspiring, maybe by reading this you all might find something to inspire you.

1. Music
I know, everyone and their dog finds inspiration through music. I  find though that music inspires us all in a different way. Some people will find inspiration in the tone of a song, others will find it in the words. How many of you have actually put on your headphones, zoned out and actually concentrated on the words of a song. Whether you take them literally or figuratively they can inspire you. I know that when I was first developing Tales of Lost I heard these songs called Fairytale by Saturday Night at the Apollo and Annie by Safetysuit. There was something about the way these songs played out and the way the lyrics just fit together that made me want to develop a story with a strong female protagonist that learns and grows throughout the series. A girl like the one described in the song Annie, someone that people couldn’t help but fall in love with her but a young woman who was also capable of the most fantastic things if she really worked hard and put her mind to it. She’s not perfect, and she stars off with very few useful skills, but she learns and that was what I wanted to stand out about her character. Neither song actually goes that in depth and describes a girl like that, but they did make me think of her.
Other songs can influence people in different ways. Maybe the tempo of the pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack (perhaps the song, He’s a pirate) makes you think of an epic fantasy with trolls and elves on a journey to achieve the true meaning of garlic mashed potatoes. Or perhaps That Britney Spears song on the radio makes you want to make a supervillain that’s a complete Diva and feels as though she deserves more that what has been given to her. Either way music can be a great source of inspiration.

2. Concept art
Movie concept art is the bomb! I find that by looking at movie concept art you get a better sense design and the whole idea planning process. Concept art reminds you that sometimes you need to take a step back and not fall in love with all your first ideas. I’m going to go ahead and use a recent example. Big Hero 6.

Look how different those early designs on the bottom are to the final designs on the top. Can you imagine how many thrown away concepts and drawings went into the final products?
Concept art has always inspired me to push my ideas and try new things out. If it doesn’t work, no biggie, but if it does you get something new and totally unique! It inspires me to never settle for my first ideas and to never be afraid of erasing and starting over. Even the greats do this. This can apply to visual design and idea forming.
Let’s say you have a story that just doesn’t make sense. The plot points just aren’t fitting together the way they should. Take a step back, throw a bunch of abstract ideas onto a page and start playing around with things. Suddenly you realise that the reason why the story wasn’t working was because you had it set in the wrong time or maybe the wrong location!
Don’t be afraid to play with your concepts and make mistakes. Concept art is a great reminder of that.

3. Art
My favourite sort of art to draw inspiration from is Fashion design and character sketches.

Story prompt: Who are these bitches? They’re clothes are a bit futuristic underground Tokyo kind of feeling. Cat eared girl kinda looks like she is in some shady business… Maybe an underground hacking market in a future Tokyo? There ya go, a basic plot! An underground hacking network in a futuristic walled off Tokyo. Now from here start developing your own characters. No one likes people who steal designs! So head over to google!
I prefer things like street fashion and high fashion.

Just like that we have the beginnings of a possible plot. Once again though, remember that you can never settle on your first idea! This concept was concocted in less then ten minutes so if I were doing this seriously, in the end, I would probably not even use this in the end.  I usually would go into tons of research about technology and where it could be headed in the next few years and then start to build up my world and probably end up just finding something better. Point is, it all started off from one image that sparked the imagination.

So there are my three main sources of idea inspiration. I should point out that I don’t use these methods all the time but they are handy for helping me further develop ideas if I’m having a particularly tricky time. I also feel as though I should make it very clear, NONE OF THESE ARE EXCUSES TO TAKE THE WORK OF OTHERS. If you find inspiration in the work of other people you must never steal their ideas! The above image of four kids hanging out belongs to the artist (I unfortunately found it on Pinterest  with no artist named. Pinterest can be so bad for that…). I don’t know the story behind those kids which is why I chose that image as an example. At no point will I ever take the designs of those characters nor will I ever even remotely try to copy those characters, that’s stealing and it’s not cool.
I often find that people will blur the lines between inspiration and stealing and the fact that I need to make that distinction really does bother me as an artist.
Having said that I will leave you guys with one very important question to ask yourself when you are creating;
“What inspired this? Is it too close to it’s inspirational material?” If you answered Yes to the second question then you need to trash that idea and head back to the drawing board.
Try also asking a friend if they can spot any obvious inspirations. If your characters name is Jelsa and she is a queen with fire magic, don’t get offended when your friend tells you it’s basically Frozen but with more burning…
Anyway, good luck guys and happy creating!

Creative writing Thursday: Characters of Race

Oooooh, you guys I am slacking. I ended up going to Toronto to draw tomorrow and my laptop/android died, guess who is a jackass that forgot the charger!
Either way I’m here now guys and I am ready to upload another creative writing post, this time we’re going to focus on Characters!…Part 1.
I have a strong belief that your characters have a huge impact on your story and you should never skimp out of them or else you run the risk of ether writing yourself into a corner or completing the story but having all the characters suffering from a severe case of living lamp syndrome. I’m not here today to talk about Lamps and Corners though, if you want that there are several house and home blogs for that. I really want to focus on writing characters of different races because I find a lot of people have a hard time doing that and I would like to address some of my biggest pet peeves. Let me start by giving you all the big secret to writing racially diverse characters…..are you ready?….here we go…
Write them like real people! Gasp! Shock!
Wow, you hear that? That’s the sound of my fellow white writers having a sudden epiphany.
Okay, enough sass more class. I’m going to list for you all my top annoyances with writing racially diverse characters and you’re all going to sit down and read it and keep in mind that this is a personal opinion and I am not the word of God. 
Stereotype 1
Sexy Japanese Girl
“Okay, no, but hear me out! Her name is Asami and she isn’t a stereotype at all. I’m not a racist so I made her super serious and pretty and she is the lead female and everything! But I wanted to please the feminists so i gave her a Katana and made her strong. There is a super good reason why she uses a Katana and seeks revenge for her dead teacher! Because she is Japanese she was raised with a strong belief in honour and blah blah” Blah blah blah….See I’ve already started tuning you out as soon as you said “raised with honour”. Oh look, another racially stereotyped East Asian(I would say Japanese but American writers often blur the lines out of lack of proper research) chick that uses a Katana…..

How new!

Katanas wielding ladies can’t be that overused….can they?

Hmmmmm.
It’s really out of a lack of creativity that you wind up with this. How about instead of following a template to avoid insulting certain racial groups you just write them like you would any other character….Maybe make Asami a Boxer…..or give her a gun. Also “Because she is Japanese” isn’t a good enough reason for her to be using a Katana, you’re just an asshole that lacks creativity. One more thing, “honour” isn’t a personality trait.

Although some would contest that.

Stereotype number 2
Street Savy Black man
We all know that stereotype. Usually partnered with the “I’m white and don’t know how to do anything” stereotype. These stereotypes usually appear in cop dramas and they kind of irk me. So tell me, were you really that lazy or were you suffering from a severe and miscalculated case of white guilt.
“No, no. My character, Will Foxx, is meant to be a representative for the people on the streets,”
“Why is he black?”
“What are you? Racist?! Are you trying to say that I am implying all black people are street people?”
No, not really. I just think you’re lazy and can’t come up with a better character so you threw in a template you knew would work and wouldn’t offend anyone. Think Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop and pretty much any Will Smith Character in existence. It’s kind of getting to the point where if your black character is below the age of 40 they’re either a fast talking street savvy mother fucker or a Black Dynamite style character. If they’re over 40 they’re Morgan Freeman. I will say that in the past few years this stereotype is on a sharp decline and I love it.

Falcon in Captain America 2? Well written character that didn’t resort to used up stereotypes and, wait for it, was written like a real person! Praise the Gods I love life.
Moving right along though.

Stereotype number 3
Spanish speaking? You are just fucked.
As someone who is dating a foxy fine Spanish speaking lady, and my best friend is Chilean, I find this one super funny and frustrating as all hell from personal experience(I’m also Portuguese and people just assume we are the same thing). Sit down for a moment and think of all the times you’ve seen a Spanish speaking character that isn’t a blatant stereotype. Go ahead, the rest of the post can wait. I also encourage you to look it up. Keep in mind all these posts only used movie examples because the pictures are easier to find for comedic effect and such, so I also encourage you to look up other mediums.
Done? Yeah me too. My personal favourite example is the recent Blue Beetle run from DC comics. Needless to say it was cancelled. I actually gave the first volume to my Chilean friend and he felt really insulted reading it.

They took every Hispanic racial trait and exploited it and it just leaves you feeling gross and your intelligence insulted. They actually thought that this would pass as an okay thing. One of the hardest reads I have endured.
Don’t even get me started on the whole “every Mexican man and woman must be Religious” or even the “Crazy Latina” issues because I will just cry fro utter frustration.

I urge you all to do some research into the standard portrayal of any racial group you’re planning on writing and take notes on how not to go about it. A persons race is not a liable personality trait. When told to describe my Friend MaddSketch I don’t say “We’ll he’s kind and funny, he’s also very motivational and Filipino,”. Want to know why? Because you’re nationality and race don’t always play into the way you present yourself. Granted there are some people out there like “Religious short tempered Latina’s” and “Quick witted Black men from the streets”, but I think we already have enough of characters like that running around so I think we can hold off on basing characters off of them any time soon. Let’s be a generation that writes more Falcons and Kamala Khan’s, show the older generation what we are creatively capable of.
Anyway, that’s enough from me today. Sorry this turned more into a “what not to do” rather then a helpful tips and pointers post but I really feel like I shouldn’t even feel the need to write this post. Anyway, if anyone knows of more examples of characters done right please do send me their name seeing as I would love to check them out! Even if it’s your own character.
Anyway for now everyone, stay Tobly awesome.

“I get that I’m super foxy mega awesome hot but if you base one more Asian bride fantasy off of me I will straight up shove my foot up your ass,” Lucy Liu, an assumed Lucy Liu proverb.

Creature Creation part 2: Original Species

Fueled by three cups of coffee, one monster energy drink and copious amounts of trail mix I am here and ready to get funky with this post! Let’s fucking do this!
For those of you that didn’t read my post yesterday, you should go do that…right now… seeing as this post is just a continuation of creature design. Yesterday I covered my method of fleshing out my own version of an already existing species and making it my own. I chose to do the Amanzile, which is my own version of the classic mermaid. Today I will tell you guys about one of my original species and how I went about creating them and their culture.
I really want to just jump right in because I am super excited to get started! Then again it could just be the caffeine…or the trail mix… probably the caffeine. Moving on!
I wanted a chance to explain my own made up species the Croendurians seeing as one of the main characters in the prelude story I will be posting here is from that race. I wanted to make a race of very human like creatures that had an almost Nordic feel to them, and were hearty and rough. These would be people that could live among the Draguns of my world and be fully capable of handling themselves in the rough living conditions in the mountains on the continent of Evrukin. I wanted them to be strong and kind of surly, in the way my moms side of my family is(they’re all heavy drinking Newfoundlanders).

Species Name: Croendur
Region: Evrukine
Culture: Very hearty culture. Most work with dragons for a living. Very family oriented. These people have become a melting pot of cultures all thrown in together and very few are “pure bred” to this day.
Appearance: Appear human. Usually slightly tanned, fair haired and green or blue eyed. Freckles. Like tanned Irish. Thicker skin, stronger bones and slightly longer life expectancy than average humans. Have a closer genetic relationship to the Anaki(giants) then humans. It has actually been theorised that they are the result of human/Anaki cross-breeding but tests have yet to be done seeing as many humans tend to avoid the Croendurians due to their bad yet unwarranted reputation. Croendurians can also grow up to 6’11, while most stay around an average height of 6’2-6’6″ for men and 6’0″-6’4″ for women. Also have been known to have longer canines, like that of a wild dog, seeing as their diet mostly consists of rough and dried meats.

So this species appears more like a different race of human then a different species entirely but to the people of Cealusterra(the world they reside in) they stand out like a sore thumb. I came up with these guys by accident while I was planning for my Draguns. Originally my character Marche( of Croendurian birth) was just a dude who came from the mountains and his mom was a Dragun vet. However, the more I developed my Draguns the more I realised that I needed the people living among them to be stronger then humans, maybe even a bit rougher around the edges. I didn’t want them to be elf like in appearance though because I already had elves in my world and I didn’t need another elf like species running amuck. I already knew  I was going to have giants in my world but I had already decided to call them the Anaki and have them come from my northern continent of Arkos, and I couldn’t have my Draguns living in such a cold climate. This meant I needed a humanoid species that had the sturdy build of a giant but closer to the size and appearance of a human. The more research I did into Draguns and giants and mythology the more I really ended up falling into Norse mythology and old Nordic cultures as well as a touch of the old Celtic cultures. For some reason I pictured these Dragun people to be very similar to an average sized Lord of the Rings meets Steampunk Dwarf. They’re habits and brash nature in the Hobbit book really appealed to me and i couldn’t help but think that if I could channel a bit of that as well in this race then I would be fucking golden as a midsummers day. Slowly but surely my race was coming together and starting to form itself.
The Croendurians would have thicker skin and bones to better equip them for a rough life in the mountains, many cliffs means more chances to hurt yourself in a fall. These people would also live off a diet of salted meats and raw root vegetables, and the occasional fish for a treat. This meant they were primarily carnivores, requiring them to have a stronger jaw and sharper teeth for tearing meat. Due to their Giant blood they do grow to be rather tall and that can often be a good indicator that you’re dealing with a Croendurian and not just a tanned human. Most of their differences from humans lies in their actual diet and their insides rather then their outer appearance.
Now although the Croedurians aren’t going to win any awards for amazing creature design they are the perfect, yet most simple, example of my creation process. It all starts out with just a dumb thought somewhere in the back of my head and that all leads to hours of research. Research. I cannot recommend this enough. It’s great motivation when it comes to actually designing your creatures features and even deciding on a culture. As I said in my last post, I even went into research marine biology for the creation of my mermaids. Research can be so inspirational and it’s a great way to explore the world around you.
From the research stage I move forward and do my summary profile (what you read above) and my ranting paragraphs about the species. I just go on and on about everything from the origins of the species, it’s evolution, why it has certain traits and even any weird habits they have (Croendurians have a strange thing for gold, yet all have an allergy to silver to varying degrees). These ranting paragraphs even help me develop things about the creature I never would have originally thought of unless I just shut my brain off and started to write.  Okay I lied, don’t turn your brain off. It’s actually at this point I’m recalling all the research I did and pulling it forward to help in the creatures more extended production.
After writing my summary and my rants I move on to drawing the creatures final designs. Croendurians are admittedly incredibly boring from a design stand point so posting an example of them won’t be too “oh wow they’re so crazy and weird looking” seeing as they are basically giant/human hybrids.
Imagine someone of South Asian background making babies with an stereotypical red head.

Boom! Croendurians appearance in a nut shells!
After I have their appearance, background, fun facts, and general “ness” figured out I am pretty much all set to throw them into the heat of the plot. I wanted to use the Croendurians as an example for this particular post seeing as, as previously stated, they’re basic as all hell. Humans that don’t go snap, crackle and pop and easily. Not everyone has to go to the extent that I go to and do hours of crazy research for facts about the species that will never come up in the story but I will say that once you have your species super fleshed out some things in your plot tend to write themselves.
Another reason why I picked the Croendurians?

This fucker. Marche, one of the main characters in Tales of Lost, a mentor to the main character and also the main character for the prelude story I’ll be posting on here. I wanted to mention his species seeing as they are brought up a lot in fire to the skies and I didn’t want to just toss you guys in there with this strange term being thrown around. Admittedly his skin is supposed to be a tad darker and so are his freckles but this is a pretty good example of his design otherwise.
So essentially I use the same process as when I modify an already existing creature it’s just that this time I really have to research a bunch of different myths, legends, cultures, races and even a bit of science (the tiniest bit, but it’s still there somewhere in regards to the species silver allergy).
I’m thinking two more weeks of this creative process bullshit then we get started of posting the story? If I lack anything to say for any of my blogs next week I’ll post up another creative writing blog.
Monday jump starts a new month of movies watching with a brand new theme so make sure to join me for that. It’s almost midnight so I am going to bring this all to a close. Have a great weekend everyone and remember to stay Tobly awesome!

Creative Writing Thursday: Creature Creation part 1

Sorry for the lack of consistent posting, I went to see the Live Welcome to Night Vale show last night. I’ve been having a life these past two weeks but no worries dear readers because that’s coming to an end seeing as I am now going to be returning to my hermit ways and getting back down to work. I actually ended up getting horribly sick right in the middle of all this free time and my friend pointed out that it seemed as though I got sick from the lack of work….Being unproductive literally makes me sick. I would make a Desert Bluffs reference but I’m afraid that might be too obscure and hipstery of me.
Seeing as this is Creative writing Thursday I really wanted to cover creature creation a little more in depth this week. I kind of touched on it a bit on my last creative Thursday post when I did a quick rant about how much I love world building (which I will eventually expand upon). Today I’m going to show you all an example of one of my creature creation templates and explain to you all in my process for it.
I’ll start off with the idea of modifying already existing creatures to suit your world/story seeing as this is the primary method I used for upcoming graphic novel series Tales of Lost (plug).

Species Name: Amanzile
Region: Qiya
Culture: Very hunter/ gatherer culture. Tribal, very secluded. Since being taken into captivity they have lost a sense of identity. They have also been known to be quite hostile towards humans when they feel threatened and seeing as they have been taken from their natural environments it’s understandable. What was left of their way of life is gone and they are now kept as signs of success among the wealthy. It’s considered very fashionable and exotic to have an Amanzile in your fish tank.
Appearance: They vary in fish species. Shark inspired, octopus, clown fish and more. Some are small, they can go anywhere from the 18 inches to 9 feet in length.  Very fish like in facial appearance as well. Gills to breath, don’t function on air at all. They are based heavily on our mythos of Mermaids but they have more of an ape like intelligence, think swimming gorillas but more fishy.

What you see above is an example of the summary profiles I write for all my creatures when I’m first toying with their concept. These are just a few questions that I use to really get my brain moving and thinking of how these creatures are going to look and feel and what they’re going to be like. From this point I usually go into an unedited rant where I take what I know about the creature from it’s summary profile and extrapolate on it. These rants are only ever meant for my eyes only so I they’re usually really rough and casual with little regard to spelling or grammar at all.
Example: So these people are like fish, right? You remember that documentary you saw about the mermaids being real and shit? Yeah well they’re like that but more diverse in shape and such. I like the idea of them having these almost ape/fish appearances and being more animal then anything, yeah that’s cool….
Not gonna lie I just went over it and corrected a few of the spelling mistakes. That’s just a small portion of the way I talk to myself when writing. Not everyone is going to know what “That documentary you saw about the mermaids” refers to, but it’s a good queue for my own memory to grab onto when I am going back over and drawing the final design for the creature.
Okay so going back over to the summary profile, let me explain to you all a bit more in depth about what I have written up there.
Species Name
The Amanzile. I’m going to be honest with you all when I say that I can’t find the notes I had with the exact translation of what words I combined to make this species name. It’s a combination of two words in Swahili, one of which being the name of a river….I wish I could find that god damn piece of paper. All the names of my creatures have an origin that makes sense to me and that I’ve put a lot of thought into. The reason why I chose to have the name inspired by Swahili has to do with the location of these creatures.
Region
Qiya is my answer to an African continent. The name is based on a word related to the etymology of Africa. I really wanted my Amanzile to reside near a continent that was warm and would allow such a large diversity of the species to live off it’s coast. I also wanted each continent to have, at the very least, one creature that was native to it’s area and the Amanzile fit perfectly with the waters surrounding Qiya.
Culture
Quite a few creatures in my world have very well formed and human based cultures, the Amanzile though are more animal than human so I wanted to keep their culture simple. Nothing extravagant beyond the basics of hunting for fish and looking for shells on the ocean floors. I watch a lot of documentaries and there were two that really inspired the culture of these creatures. One of which spoke of nomadic tribes with no contact with the outside and how they had developed their own way of life without the influence of those of us from the rest of society. One tribe in particular was deeply hurt when they tried to make contact with the outside world and now no one can get near their coasts without getting spears or arrows sent their way. The other documentary I watched was about feral children, especially a case involving a young girl named Jeanie(spelling? I’m terrible with names). The way this girl would act with her handlers interested me and I found myself really provoked by the way children like her developed. This idea of a species that had this sort of hostility after having suffered betrayal and cruelty(much like the people from the first documentary) at the hands of humans, but stayed at this same sort of feral development that any human would undergo if raised in a wild sort of predicament really jump started me. Of course it’s evolved since then and taken on a far more wild and less human approach to the Amanzile but I still have to credit those two docs for sending me in the right direction. I always feel sad when writing for the Amanzile though because at the point in time that my comic picks up most of them have been either killed or taken into captivity. They’re one of my favourite creatures I’ve created, and just like some animals in our world, they face extinction.
Appearance
I wanted God damn Mermaids!
I didn’t want Ariel mermaids though, I wanted to try and design a mermaid that made sense. One that might actually exist if given the correct conditions to thrive. Whilst reading up on marine biology(which I discovered I really enjoy but have very little brain power for) I heard of a documentary that covered what it might be like if mermaids were real. I highly recommend it for any fantasy fans out there. All I could think was ‘There they are! That’s the Amanzile!’, well almost. Of course I would modify their design and add in different types just to add more of a fantasy-esque flair onto them but the mockumentary version was pretty damn close to what I had been thinking.

The documentary is called “Mermaid: A Body Found” and it’s a good bit of fun. I won’t go to far into the biology of these things because then I would honestly take way from the mockumentary. Seriously though, give it a watch. It’s a great example of creature creation.

Point being to all this, I do put a lot of research into my creature creations. I spent many hours reading through mermaid descriptions from around the world and the different legends behind mermaids in my process of building up the Amanzile. I researched fish breeds to draw inspiration from and even watched a few documentaries for inspiration. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
Want to know about the best part with these guys? I might not even include them in the main plot! They may just end up being a side note in the grand scheme of things, but you know what? I have them now if I ever want or need them. They’re fleshed out and designed and ready to go for any plot that may require their assistance.
Wow, I talk a lot…so sorry. I want to cover my creation process for my original species but I fear that’ll just make this entry one long drone so I’ll tell you guys what! Instead of an angry rant tomorrow I’ll upload “Creation Creation part 2! Original species”.
If you all have any questions regarding the Amanzile or the mentioned continent of Qiya feel free to ask, until tomorrow though guys, stay tobly awesome!

World Building Appreciation Post

Let’s try this again shall we? Last time I tried to write about my love of world building my wordpress app crapped out on me so here I am again giving it a second go.
I often find that world building can be the purest expression of creativity that any writer can experience. There are no rules or restraints holding you down, you can create anything as long as you find a way for it to make sense within your own world. I really love writers that go the extra mile to really stretch their imagination and create new places for the readers mind to wander. Like imaginary play grounds.
I really wanted to talk to you all about world building because it’s something I’ve always loved being able to do. As a kid I would spend hours creating a fantasy world with it’s own languages and cultures and history. I found it so much fun to just pull things out of the air and find a way for it to make sense, almost like a huge jigsaw puzzle. If I wanted dragons I would find a way for the dragons to logically fit into the world I was creating. Even now I find myself immersed in my new world of Cealusterra, a sci-fi fantasy alternate world with a dash of steam punk for aesthetics. I want this world to seem real to people despite it’s ridiculous fantasy elements. I don’t want to just throw in some dragons, airships and gears and call it a day, I want this world to stand out within it’s genre and look at steam punk in a new way.
I know that just by mentioning steam punk a few of you are probably already thinking “eugh, yeah sure. Just make up some fancy sounding science and throw a few gears on it”. If you are, I’m sorry something has soured you to the genre, but I would like to possibly change that if you would give me the honour of doing so. Over the next few weeks, till my next story starts, I would like to share with you all my world building process and maybe even show you a sample, not the whole thing seeing as it’s ten pages long, of the character template I use for all my main characters in the Cealusterra world. Next week I want to start you all on the Etymology process I use when choosing names for my continents and cities, which I think is extremely important.
This week I want to quickly touch upon the importance of establishing cultures if you want to really make you work pop. Keep in mind that I am by no means an English teacher, just a guy with a crazy mind who likes shiny fantasy/sci-fi worlds. Let’s begin with this little warning, be VERY careful when dealing with cultures in your made up world. I often find that a lot of people resort to choosing a fantasy/Tolkien motif to fall back on, which is all fine and dandy, but one question you have to always ask yourself is “What can I bring to the table that’s new”. If you’re going to touch on a world that’s been done so often you really need to find out what new and exciting thing(whatever it might be) you’re able to bring to the table. I know it’s hard sometimes to tell on your own if the world you’re creating is too similar to others so here are a few questions you should go through.
Why does my world have the cultures that it has? How did they develop?
Are there multiple cultures in this world? If so, why? (Look at our Earth, if your world has only one culture either it needs more developing or you need to have a well thought out reason if you really want to immerse your reader)
What races will your world include and why? You have Elves, that’s cool, do they call themselves Elves? Maybe your world has a different name for them that’s makes more sense.
Always ask yourself How and Why when it comes to adding things to your world. Don’t ever be afraid of research even if it’s boring as shit it can and will help, trust me. As an example;
I do have Elves in Cealusterra but they are not referred to as such, they actually go by two different names. In the Eastern regions of my Continent Aiosus they are referred to as the Ju Lin, while in the south of Aiosus they are called the Auvanasi. Both names corelate to the different dialects in those regions and both the Ju Lin and Auvanasi have very different ways of life. You all get to learn about these guys more in depth in my upcoming webcomic…..Shameless plug….Back to the subject at hand!
I’m not saying you need to have weird and wacky names for your traditional fantasy or alien creatures or places in order to show “culture” just that you need to find a way to make them your own rather than being the next Tolkien. A wise, and racist, Mike Myers movie once told me:
“I don’t need to be the next Deepak Chopra when I can be the First Guru Pitka” Guru Pitka(The Love Guru).

Mariska Hargitay
Such a bad movie, with a good message though. Why be the next Tolkien when you can be the first you. Thank you Mike Myers.
One more thing before I leave you all off for the week, have fun with it. This is your own little mind palace creation so you really don’t need to take what I’m saying here to heart. It’s your brain and I can’t tell you what you HAVE to do with your world, just help you out from the perspective of an amateur writer and lover of creativity.
Anyway guys, till tomorrow, stay Tobly awesome.

Studio blog 3: Anatomy rant

New Studio blog you guys!!! This one is super special seeing as I’m at home…so it’s going to be more of an at home lazy art blog today. Seeing as I am hard at work on my new story I’m going to be a hack and repost an old tumblr rant up here. It is art oriented so I figured this would be a good place to share it.
Warning: Very long and very NSFW.
Here it is, originally posted on my Tumblr way back in January of this year.

So I’m a HUGE Tiger and Bunny fan and tonight I found myself floating around the Tiger and Bunny tag. Now seeing as Tiger and Bunny has a character line up made up of almost entirely attractive male characters there is bound to be some hot gay dickins all up on that tag.
Now to clarify, I am not homophobic(all my followers/friends know this already). In fact I’m pansexual so if anything I am very down with some guy on guy. However! When I see a guy on guy fanart that completely laughs in the face of male anatomy I get a bit twitchy.

Now I have censored the following images out of respect for my straight male friends, they put up with my gay shit all the god damn time so the least I can do is censor it for their dash.
I will be censoring this following critique with my new friend “naughty no-no Pee wee Herman”

I am by no means artist of the year but I do have a fairly structured understanding on anatomy. So away we go!
It all started with this image.

Good job Peewee! You’re already doing a marvelous job.
What the fuck Kotetsu’s boob?!
Now I know what you’re thinking “But Toby, a pec is just a male boob,”….no….no it isn’t.
A pec, is a pectoral MUSCLE! A boob is a Mammory glad…made of fat. FAT NOT FUCKIN MUSCLE! Fat and muscle do not react to surfaces the same way. You can’t treat a mans pecs in the same way you treat a womans breasts. Just no.
All things considered though this one wasn’t too bad. BUT, it was too late, my curiosity was peaked. So I headed on over to everyone’s favourite yaoi site Yaoi Haven and stalked through JUST the Tiger and Bunny section and it was a fucking treasure trove of examples for me to use.

Now I’m pretty sure if I didn’t point it out you can all see the issue here.
What is up with our tigers spine? No human (other then a trained contortionist maybe) can bend that way. Before drawing something the best advice I can give here is to always see if you can do the position you want to draw before drawing it. If you can’t imitate the pose then your subject probably can’t do it either. Reference images are also useful as fuck.
RIP Kotetsu’s back
Moving on

This example is probably my biggest beef. Hips…. Men and women have different hips. Men are not just women with penis’, they’re very different anatomy wise and just putting a penis and some facial hair on them is just not going to cut it.
Seriously what the fuck, Barnaby looks like J.Lo(are we calling her that still? Or am I revealing too much about my age now). Let’s examine this closer.
The artist has drawn Barnaby probably using a female reference. How do I know? Let’s take a look see, ya?

Everyone meet Angel Annie! She was the best example I could find of common anatomy used in art (not average female, let’s face it artists like to exaggerate a fuck ton). Observe how her body curves above the hip, look at Barnaby….now back at her…see it now? No? Well let’s look at a boy with some hips for comparison

Now this fellah….hot damn….oh sorry…this fellah here does have a curve above his hips but notice that it isn’t anywhere near as dramatic as Barnaby or Angel Annies. It’s subtle, but still there. THAT is how a man’s body COMMONLY curves.
Using the excuse that some men are just bit larger in the hips is just lazy especially when you’re drawing a character with this anatomy.

….but fuck where are these curves of which you speak?
Okay one last little thing.

If I didn’t know better I would’ve thought that this picture of Sky High(If I recall his name right) was a chick…then I saw the penis and felt lied to.
MENS PECS ARE NOT BOOBS!!! Also Men do not have jiggly bouncy Iggy Azalea booties

When you’re drawing looks more like Iggy Azalea then the character you’re actually trying to draw, and that character is male, then you know you have some anatomy issues.
My point to this being, if you’re going to draw Yaoi, draw Yaoi. Not Chicks with dicks. Because half the time that’s what it ends up looking like.
None of this “but Toby it’s the anime style!” “Toby Yaoi is meant to look girly”
Sorry but I can’t hear you

Over the MOTHERFUCKIN SOUND

OF BUTT FUCKIN’ ANATOMY YOU SMARMY LITTLE FUCKERS
“Style” is never an excuse to cop out on anatomy. Style should be used in Tandem with fucking anatomy.
These two examples are good examples of anatomy working WITH style.
FUCK! Why is that so hard for people?
Am I being a little bitch? Oh hell the fuck yes. Do I think people use excuses to avoid anatomy (such as “it’s just gay porn” and “it’s animu”)? OH MEGAMANHELLA FUCK YES!
Okay I’m fuckin’ done. Toby out bitches.
Don’t forget to thank special guest Naughty No-no Peewee on your way out the door.
…….

BAM!
Sorry found him on my travels and my hand slipped. He is perfect reference BTW for an RL Barnaby in my opinion.

And there it is! My rant about yaoi art. Keep in mind I am a sassy, silly writer so you should probably take my cursing with a grain of salt….but not my message. Study anatomy you guys!
Welp tomorrow is creative writing Thursday, stay Tobly awesome you guys!