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@wanco-alien

I’m sorry but i IMMEDIATELY peeked the sayonara zetsubou sensei banner and just instant joy!

So my question is what are your fav manga/anime series that you feel have influenced your  art and characters?I know this is a pretty softball of a question but I love that series it’s ops are one of my favs.  

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Monster high. Liek I really loved fantasy anime as a kid but I never really had any monster ocs out side of witches and even then I didn't dive much into researching until I discovered Monster high. It's a cute series and I love the incorporation of old school monster lore and updating it and applying it to modern day. I love the fashions, the little details and nods injected into the series as a whole. How they'd use the lore to inspire and create really got me heavy into researching and adapting to my own needs.I honestly don't have a favorite type of monster XD I have things I like but I can't jsut boil it down to one since there's so many variations sometime on just one. It's fun to mix and match. 

LunaBell I see you have lots of monster ocs! What made you like them so much? What's your favorite type of monster, and do you like to put your own spin on their lore or work with the established lore if there's one?

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Wow that's unexpected!!! I've dropped out of the fandom since a couple years so I'm not up to date with the people in it, I know some of the earlier members sometimes get nostalgic and that's super cute!! I just took my ocs out of it and completely justified it in canon haha. I have kind of sour memories attached to the whole thing but I don't hate it or anything like that... It did suck a lot of my life energy since I dealed with lots of things (voluntarily ofc) and in the end I have this feeling that I was just 'lucky' to hand out with the 'cool guys' since I wasn't as talented?? IDK I've always had interest in worldbuilding so I feel that was the best thing I did back then, just pulling a kind of 'open species' out of my ass haha but I had fun with that! My drawing style was just x_x not so good, and I rushed a lot of things... I wouldn't have been in the "popular" group if it wasn't because I made the first oc, which is kind of sad to think about, but I'm okay with that. There's also the fact that my one oc was kind of a douchabag narcissistic bastard so maintaining relationships and generally roleplaying him wasn't everybody's cup of tea, which is understandable. I just like to explore that kind of characters and well, in the end it gave me a lot to work with, traumatizing the boy.

I never got any hate or particularly bizarre messages (or at least not that I remember, it's been rly long) but I did hang with the wrong crowd :( It hurt me a lot but I'm in a better place now!

As for the ghost stuff... I'm actually not big on scary stuff HAHA I really dig the stuff where the POV is from the ghosts? IDK I really like the concept of Rest In Peace Department for example (I'm trying to play it cool but I totally watched that movie BECAUSE I have a ghost police plot) though I guess a big influence was Danny Phantom! In general all these stories that aren't scary but touch on ghosts are my faves! Sorry for being super weak HAHA

I think all these were oc related in one way or another :P But as for your last question... Whew, that'd be a lot, I think! Obviously I draw inspiration from anime, and popular media in general. I also take inspiration in food (?) and magic? in general? Funnily enough I consider myself as someone who doesn't believe in magic but I LOVE the idea of it existing! The possibilities! I even have a hard time consuming media that doesn't have a little bit of magic in it, I just need it to keep interest most of the time. I've always liked creating things, so a lot of the ocs and stories I make are just because I had a random thought and I was like, wait, this is really good stuff!!

I never knew you stated the gay dessert anime thing?? I have a friend who has been into it for YEARS and still is somewhat active but I feel like at this point it has probably formed cliques and smaller groups around the concept, maybe? But man, given how big it became, did you ever get any trouble because of it? Annoying or weird messages or something? 

Also I read you like ghost stuff so what are your favourite type of ghost stories? 

Oh and to keep it vaguely OC related too, what would you consider to be your main inspirations in terms of like creative content in general?

Hello! You seem super cool omg. Firstly, how did you come up with Sinfonia? 

Thank you!! I'm honestly not very cool though don't be fooled haha

Sinfonia started out as a joke! My friend jokingly suggested me this idea of an RPGmaker game but with 70s shoujo manga graphics, and I got so into the idea I started thinking if it would be possible for me to make a visual novel parody of sort about some of the 70s shoujo cliches and conventions, and thus Sinfonia was born. However, I got so attached to my characters and found myself taking it so seriously my initial plans of a parody or a joke faded away, and soon I realized I actually have a full-blown project going on that isn't really a joke game anymore. That actually made things difficult at first because most of my cast was built around the typical 70s manga character stereotypes and tropes, but I feel like at this point I have worked on them so much they're their own characters rather than tropes. 

What would you say is your favorite shoujo manga and book, seeing how those can be influences on your visual novel?

My favourite shoujo manga is probably The Heart of Thomas, although Poe no Ichizoku and Rose of Versailles are also really high up there too. There are tons of vintage manga I love but for vastly different reasons, and some of them deal with topics so heavy and taboo I sort of don't talk about them much out of courtesy for others, even though those works really changed me and my way of thinking hopefully for the better. As for books I absolutely love Hamlet, it's been my weird fixation since high school, and I also adore Demian by Hermann Hesse and The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James! 

 And one more because I'm super interested, what made you want to make the vetehi species?

I originally created my first vetehi back in... 2014? He was called Nirve and he was for a monster group we had with friends, but that group died fast but Nirve remained. I started working on his species for fun and personal use, I didn't even know of closed species at the time, and so I just kept writing for my own amusement. Years later when I finally did learn about the concept of cs I thought it seemed fun and I liked the idea of working on something I enjoy, and remembered vetehi and how they'd potentially make a fun starter cs for me. 

Vetehi are heavily based on Finnish mythology by their origins, hence the name that comes from the Finnish word vetehinen, which refers to merfolk or rulers of the water. I don't think my culture's mythology is really known or used as a source of inspiration so I thought maybe that would set me apart from others or at least make a fun quirk to the species if nothing else. 

Biomedical studies, huh? I can't even fathom what all goes into that, I'm sure it's tough! Do you apply any of the stuff you've learned to your characters? If you have, is it to help you retain something, or is it because you like what you learned and thought a character would fit well with that info?

Oh, kekekekek, I have problems drawing in general! I can't draw, unless it's an MS Paint meme. As for why they're all humans, it's just easy for me to get in character with humans/humanoids. I can't really get in character with ferals or anthros, except for my demon wolf, and even he has a human form he sticks to mainly.

(Amazing profile pic-)

PicklePantry Heey! I really want to ask, I noticed all your OCs are humans or, at least, human-like. Why? You have problems drawing animals/monsters or something like that? Sorry if appears a rude question ;w;"

I'll answer both >:D

Yeh, I'm in a lot of fandoms... I love so much things lololololo.

Well, I love characters with long or medium hair. It's so much fun to draw! I also like cute characters, but rebellious or dangerous. It sounds cliché but it's a nice cliché.

'bout my fandoms, my favorite fandoms are UT and Okegom. In Undertale Fandom, everyone is very cool in the Brazilian community (which is mine). The AUs are interesting and run away from the original script very well. And the English arts are wonderful! 

The theories got me into the Okegom fandom. It's all very interesting, the arts, the shipps, the OCs ... It's a lot of cool stuff.

@cinna-caramelroll

You have a lot of characters and I see that you're in a bunch of fandoms! I was wondering what your favorite kinds of characters were (certain personalities, stories, or design elements), or what you like most about your favorite fandoms?

Do you have any artist whose art style inspired you to start drawing? Because I first learned to draw by copying the manga style I like, I wonder if it's the same for other people. If yes, do you still see the influence of those styles in your art nowadays?

Oh, this is a neat question! I don't think I can say anyone in particular inspired me to start drawing because I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, but I can tell you who influenced my current style. It's actually something I was just thinking about the other day.

Alex Toth is my biggest influence. You might know him as the character designer for Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Super Friends and Space Ghost, but he was extremely versatile and draftsmanlike, and his letters to other cartoonists have always been an inspiration to me (this last page from his letter to Steve Rude is my favorite, and I have it pinned above my desk).

Here are some Alex Toth model sheets to show you what his style looked like, all clean and sharp, no lines wasted. I have three huge binders of photocopies of his character sheets and I study them:

Another of my biggest influences is Genndy Tartakovsky. You might know him as the creator of Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, or Dexter's Laboratory. Like Bruce Timm, he followed in the Alex Toth vein of thick, simplified lines, but his shapes are so good: his characters look both flat and alive, and I admire it a lot. Here are some of his designs:

Other influences include Jiro Kuwata (Japanese Batman comics from the '60s and 8 Man), Keith Haring, Hergé (Tintin), Ken Sugimori (mostly because I did a lot of Twitch Plays Pokemon comics for a couple of years and drawing all those Pokemon humans seeped into my style), the Hanna-Barbera cartoon style generally, that 1970s Sunrise super robot anime style, that late-'90s/early-2000s Western TV animation style, R. Crumb (Fritz the Cat, etc.), and... probably a lot of other things. Thanks for letting me self-indulgently throw my art influences at you, haha.

I think the one part of my style that's never changed and most answers your question is the way I do dot eyes, which I've been doing since I was a kid reading newspaper comic strips and wanting to make my own.

hedgemaze

Do you have any artist whose art style inspired you to start drawing? Because I first learned to draw by copying the manga style I like, I wonder if it's the same for other people. If yes, do you still see the influence of those styles in your art nowadays?

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          It's a combination of embarrassing curiosities and ignorance to be honest. :'D Many Slavic people may not be pleased that I mention this because nowadays they likely view this as undesirable past, but all Slavic countries were once ruled under Communism. And in the country I live in, the government during the Cold War period were rather paranoid about Communism thus they censored anything related to those coutries at that time. Even Russian language was banned from being taught here during that period because the government feared that it would spread Communism. So unfortunately, most Slavic countries inevitably earned the 'mysterious' title because people hardly know a thing about them. That included non-political aspects that got tangled into this mess and denied the right to be studied about like languages or cultures.

          So initially, like most people in my country, I was drawn by this 'mysterious' feel about them. Also because in my younger years, I used to be a big fan of soccer. At that time, the wars in Yugoslavia were barely concluded so I found it fascinating to see many players came from the new countries that used to be Yugoslavia. Still, I didn't really care to learn about the history and cultures of them until 2010, when I came across a documentary 'Once Brothers' that talked about how the disintegration of Yugoslavia affected the players who used to play in the same Yugoslavian national team. After eatching it, I started becoming curious whether the general understanding of the Yugoslav Wars was actually correct or was there something more?

          The major turning point was definitely in 2013 when I created Valentin and Hrvoje to join Axis Powers Hetalia themed roleplay group. To create 'settlement spirit' characters means one has to read as much as they can about the town to combine characteristics into personality. So that was when I first read history of Russia and former Yugoslavia countries extensively, learning how to read cyrillic alphabet in process. :'D

           And then, one of the 'events' in the RP group was to draw OCs in national costumes. That was how my first contact with Slavic folk cultures was initiated. I almost set google on fire repeatedly searching for folk costumes info. By now I have quite a few reference sites to go to when I particularly want to draw regional folk costumes from a certain country. By the way, if you're interested in folk costumes the first thing you need to learn is the ethnological terms of different area of a country. Searching for folk costumes reference is much more effective using ethno area name than searching 'folk costume from (name of city)'.

           I'm typing from my phone right now thus I can't give you the reference links ATM. I'll PM you the links once I can sign in from PC again!

Raddishes So, you like dad jokes too >:3c Puns should rule the world  !!! Asides from that, I am curious about how do you come up with names for your characters, what inspiration do you get for those ?

Thanks for your reply ! And I see what you mean here :O tbh I feel the same about mine, I just find a name that goes with their design.

reinapepiada As funny as it may sound, I've actually never eaten any watermelons in my life ! This sudden love for them happened because of a joke on Discord: after I randomly decided to put watermelon emojis in my name, I decided to keep them, especially because of my watermelon boy Yuki !

"Hi ! I'm Yuki !"

He is entirely responsible for this !🍉

Now, my least favorite fruit is probably dry grapes especially mixed with regular meals, I don't like mixing salty and sweet food together. I would not mind them alone but they're ofter mixed with other stuff. Aside from that I don't hate any particular fruit, there are some of them that don't really attract me but I haven't tried them.

@sevenlole So... Watermelon! I imagine it's your favorite fruit! Do you like anything with it, or do you prefer it in its natural fruit state?

On the other hand, what is your least favorite fruit?

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It's such a late response!! I'm sorry!! But thank you so much <3

It's true! I've been making ocs since years ago when I was still in high school and I really liked the Chemistry class! Mind you, I'm not as bright now as I was then, but I really liked all things pertaining to chemistry! I actually made Californio and Asen thanks to that! Californio is obviously named after californium (Cf), and Asen is named after arsenic (As), while the rest of the characters are also named after chemicals, like Cseren is named after cesium (Cs) and Ceena after cerium (Ce)! I had more characters and more chemicals involved but I kind of dropped this storyline atm

I've always been curious about how one could interpret a chemical or ingredient, or fruit, or anything really and build an entire character around it. Kind of like, if junk food is bad for you, they must have a toxic personality. I have lots of fun doing this and I'm glad it shows!

I don't know if they're not obvious but I can tell you which of my characters are or were gijinkas of things at some point, not counting the ones you mentioned: Aelia (blue curazao), Kerae (alchermes), Agni (black pepper + cayenne pepper (idk)), Brandon (black tea w lime), Brevyn (not a gijinka per se but I did my research like everything else; he's an australian christmas tree!), Cseren's early design was taken from a scrapped Twitter gijinka of mine haha, Doritos and Ruffles, Kei (formerly a key lime pie... long story), Michael's first design and iteration was a Kiwifruit gijinka! His colors were very different, RAW (formerly a sushi cake gijinka... also long story)

I have other characters who are humanizations of animals but I'm not counting those cuz the type of research that goes into them is different, and I'm more fond of the ones based on things rather than living beings >:3

circlejourney I'm seriously really impressed by how many creative things you're doing! Since you're an artist, writer and a musician, did you start from one thing and then expand to others, or were all three always an equal part of your life? I also read from your patreon you have graduated, so if you're just comfortable with sharing that, what did you graduate as? 

Ah, and also, are you in any fandoms / what are your favourite works of fiction? 

I'm entirely self taught! I come from a really small village where teachers just barely knew how to use a computer, so I have had to figure out all this stuff on my own, sadly. 

And yeah of course, it's still in development so I'll add a bunch more characters than just the main cast & I still need to draw more sprites and CGS and whatnot! And yeah I'll at least add a one character cameo and probably add other small little things here and there, although for now I just focus on getting down the main stuff and adding the small fun later!

No worries, I'm not a native speaker either!

Caine I see you a lot and you give me the impression of being someone really smart!

I see that you are a in literature and is also making a game, that's really interesting. you learned to make a game on your own or you did some classes somewhere? Also, your visual novel sounds really really cool! I always wanted to do it myself, but i never had the motivation, so i really admire someone who does that! Do you have any plans to work on your vn, like adding new characters or doing new stuff in general? Also, would you put easter eggs on your game? 

sorry about my weird english, it's not my first language ;v;

Lup hello!! My first language is portuguese, i'm from brazil! I'm not exactly into learning languages, but english was like... the main stuff all the things i liked were ): Like, every game, since i was a child, they were all in english. Zelda was the one who marked me the most, but i honestly didn't understand anything whatsoever. So i played the game literally running around and figuring stuff out by myself sidgbgkvbss 

the reason i got into animation was bc i really like the idea of putting things i imagine to life! I started with my drawings(although they aren't much of a big thing either but, well OTL) and went for animation in an impulse. I was doing marketing in college for 3 years, and on my last year i had a panic attack and decided to close my college life for some time. I had a talk with my mom who told me i should go for things i'm interested on(boy i cant get started on talking how boring marketing is) so i went for animation!

it is kinda difficult, yea, but it's just the pay we pay for doing things we love ;v; it's really bad because i have self esteem problems with the things i do, and i'm often doubting myself, but i came some way with animation! On my final project on college, i'm gonna do an animation about depression because it's something that affected me for a long time, in a really really bad way. I want to make people aware of it in a way that doesn't look cold like those informative guides, i want something more natural that people can relate ;v;