Post by Lyss on Sept 22, 2015 19:51:24 GMT
This got really really long and sappy so I apologize for that ffff. It's just been on my mind a lot lately.
When I think of it now, when I first became a part of our whole online community it was... actually extremely toxic at the beginning. (I'm not talking about anyone on this forum because I met several of you guys in the middle of all this, and others much later.)
I mean, we were all young kids. I was 13 at the time, and I’d never been on any sort of online forum. We were middle schoolers. We were ignorant. We said and did some really stupid and hurtful things and there was a ton of drama. I mean a ton. (remember the app drama?? it was awful in the moment but now it's... really kind of hilarious...)
My first year was really rough, because I remember really being inspired by the work of a few of my friends. It’s not a long shot to say they’re why I’m still drawing to this day - I'm in the middle of drawing something right now, actually, but that's beside the point.
Art theft... is a really common thing on the internet. Some of you might remember that I had my art stolen by one of my oldest online “friends.” I was maybe 14 at the time. Imagine being that young and suddenly one of your friends takes art you poured lots of effort and time into, and when you confront them they have the most vicious attitude imaginable. They were in the wrong, but they acted like I was the source of all their life's problems and even threatened to beat me up if they ever saw me in real life. Since I was so young I was terrified and so upset I didn't know what to do. (for anyone wondering, the deviantart staff didn't do anything about it, but that probably isn't very surprising.)
We grew apart after that. Obviously. But backtracking a little, I was constantly accused of “stealing” certain attributes of my friends’ characters, when all it was was inspiration. I wasn’t allowed to get a word in. If the design, abilities, or even name of my character was remotely similar to someone else’s, I was apparently a thief. Imagine the effect that has on a young artist.
Well, it hurt, and I became so insecure about my own stuff that I ended up adopting their same mindset. You couldn’t walk five feet without one of us being like “I’M CALLING OUT X BECAUSE THEY COPIED Y’S CHARACTER!!! THEY MUST DIE.”
It was all just really immature and ignorant. For one thing, true originality doesn’t exist in art. Art has been around for thousands of years. By now technically everything is a cliche - the way you handle the cliche is what can make or break your characters, your writing, everything. Cliches make both the most amazing and most cringe-worthy things out there. Some of us (including myself) tried so hard to be original back then that it just ended up being one massive headache.
Well, thankfully I’ve grown past that attitude. I’m 20 now. I start college on monday, and several of you guys have been in college for a long time at this point. There’s very little drama between any of us anymore, if any, and I don’t even really talk to the people who influenced me and gave me a really paranoid, self-entitled attitude when it came to art. It's probably for the best.
Now it’s like... I’m actually really into our characters having similar attributes. I’m super interested in how we all have different takes on things like their abilities, for instance. say one has the ability to manipulate fire, but only fire that already exists, and doing so drains their energy, while another character controls fire too, but it emits toxic fumes. Maybe another character has fire or magma in their veins instead of blood, making them totally heatproof.I may or may not be using examples that I've seen from some of you /shot. There are so many different things you can do with the same trope or whatever, and it’s kind of amazing.
I'm not really sure where I was planning on going with this, but it's really been amazing growing as an artist with all of you. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I've also learned so much more than I would have, had I never found you guys. I've even become more comfortable in my own skin because of how amazingly accepting and open-minded you all are. I had some of the most fun experiences of my life just talking with everyone and roleplaying and doing art trades and such. Even though we've all been really busy lately, I do hope we all manage to stay in contact, because our friendships mean so much to me and you've all been some of the best friends I could ask for.
I'm getting really emotional writing this lmao. But I love all of you and seriously appreciate everything you've done for me. Thank you <3
When I think of it now, when I first became a part of our whole online community it was... actually extremely toxic at the beginning. (I'm not talking about anyone on this forum because I met several of you guys in the middle of all this, and others much later.)
I mean, we were all young kids. I was 13 at the time, and I’d never been on any sort of online forum. We were middle schoolers. We were ignorant. We said and did some really stupid and hurtful things and there was a ton of drama. I mean a ton. (remember the app drama?? it was awful in the moment but now it's... really kind of hilarious...)
My first year was really rough, because I remember really being inspired by the work of a few of my friends. It’s not a long shot to say they’re why I’m still drawing to this day - I'm in the middle of drawing something right now, actually, but that's beside the point.
Art theft... is a really common thing on the internet. Some of you might remember that I had my art stolen by one of my oldest online “friends.” I was maybe 14 at the time. Imagine being that young and suddenly one of your friends takes art you poured lots of effort and time into, and when you confront them they have the most vicious attitude imaginable. They were in the wrong, but they acted like I was the source of all their life's problems and even threatened to beat me up if they ever saw me in real life. Since I was so young I was terrified and so upset I didn't know what to do. (for anyone wondering, the deviantart staff didn't do anything about it, but that probably isn't very surprising.)
We grew apart after that. Obviously. But backtracking a little, I was constantly accused of “stealing” certain attributes of my friends’ characters, when all it was was inspiration. I wasn’t allowed to get a word in. If the design, abilities, or even name of my character was remotely similar to someone else’s, I was apparently a thief. Imagine the effect that has on a young artist.
Well, it hurt, and I became so insecure about my own stuff that I ended up adopting their same mindset. You couldn’t walk five feet without one of us being like “I’M CALLING OUT X BECAUSE THEY COPIED Y’S CHARACTER!!! THEY MUST DIE.”
It was all just really immature and ignorant. For one thing, true originality doesn’t exist in art. Art has been around for thousands of years. By now technically everything is a cliche - the way you handle the cliche is what can make or break your characters, your writing, everything. Cliches make both the most amazing and most cringe-worthy things out there. Some of us (including myself) tried so hard to be original back then that it just ended up being one massive headache.
Well, thankfully I’ve grown past that attitude. I’m 20 now. I start college on monday, and several of you guys have been in college for a long time at this point. There’s very little drama between any of us anymore, if any, and I don’t even really talk to the people who influenced me and gave me a really paranoid, self-entitled attitude when it came to art. It's probably for the best.
Now it’s like... I’m actually really into our characters having similar attributes. I’m super interested in how we all have different takes on things like their abilities, for instance. say one has the ability to manipulate fire, but only fire that already exists, and doing so drains their energy, while another character controls fire too, but it emits toxic fumes. Maybe another character has fire or magma in their veins instead of blood, making them totally heatproof.
I'm not really sure where I was planning on going with this, but it's really been amazing growing as an artist with all of you. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I've also learned so much more than I would have, had I never found you guys. I've even become more comfortable in my own skin because of how amazingly accepting and open-minded you all are. I had some of the most fun experiences of my life just talking with everyone and roleplaying and doing art trades and such. Even though we've all been really busy lately, I do hope we all manage to stay in contact, because our friendships mean so much to me and you've all been some of the best friends I could ask for.
I'm getting really emotional writing this lmao. But I love all of you and seriously appreciate everything you've done for me. Thank you <3