Raphael/Akioh/Moon
He/him
29 Years Old

Hey, I'm Raphael and I love OCs! Yeah. Also I study linguistics. Idk what to put here.

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TAOMAR and Tomato

Mood: CONFUSED...

I thought it would be a good idea to go back and read The Adventures of Marth and Roy.
HA....

So many awkward transitions. They're all over the place. I still struggle so bad with those... "orz That, and Unnecessarily dramatic panels...

The quality suddenly gets better at this page, though, and the writing and facial expressions are more like things I would write and draw now. SO IT ACTUALLY HAS SOME DECENT MOMENTS FROM THAT POINT ONWARD... For instance, this page! I like it for some reason. S-so I guess my sense of humor/etc hasn't changed since around 2011......................... or 2012. Actually, that makes sense. Idk how much I've changed since junior year of high school. I mean, I still drew a lot of SteGabe back then, so... NOT MUCH HAS PROBABLY CHANGED AT ALL! 8D

But sadly, as the writings suddenly gets better, the story suddenly stops. I actually still have the 3rd page of chapter 3 that I sketched maybe a year or two ago somewhere in my room back home.

But yeah, it's been a fun trip down memory lane. My sense of humor was so boring before that sudden time jump, you guys, whyyyy did anyone even think it was funny. xD;;; CHAPTER 1 IS BASICALLY JUST...
HE'S IN A SKIRT.
HAHAHAH!
H-HOW IS THAT A PUNCHLINE, AKIOH...

THOUGH MAYBE humor's not different at all. 8D; I use so many reaction panels and exaggerated expressions... and actually, I think I exaggerate expressions more now than I used to. xD

And even, it looks like OFAV started as a comic along the premise of, "Tomato acts like a girl! HAHAHAH!" That's essentially the same thing as "he's in a skirt. HAHAHA!".
Somewhere in me, I think I made Tomato as a character to make fun of comics/shows that rely on an "unnaturally effeminate male" as the source of humor... but I'm probably giving myself too much credit. Most of the comics I've posted, though, don't really address the fact that Tomato's a "fruity guy"; and the comic would be largely the same if Tomato was a biological woman.
There's probably still a degree of entertainment that ends up coming out of Tomato's gender, for some people. I remember when I showed my comics to my mom, she said she "got a kick out of Tomato." If Tomato was specifically a girl, my mom may not have said that.
I'm not trying to get at anything like "girls are less valued than boys," by the way. In fact, I think the remark has different roots, where someone finds entertainment/amusement in a boy or girl acting uncharacteristically of their gender.
All that said, the difference in entertainment depending whether Tomato is a boy or a girl isn't that much. When my stepdad read OFAV, he read all the way through the first 8 strips finding the comics with Tomato funny, while under the impression that Tomato is a girl. (The first pronoun used for Tomato comes discreetly at the end of strip 5; but the most obvious references to Tomato's gender are at strip 9, where Stefan repeatedly refers to Tomato as "he.")

And uh... Where am I getting at with this?
I have no idea. That was a weird little tangent! 8D
AND I'M GOING TO CONTINUE IT!

Now that I think about it, I think one of the reasons I made Tomato was to make fun of or to explore the impressions of male characters whose only interesting characteristic was being an attractive gender bent. (Boring trap characters, essentially.) I think someone I was subscribed to at the time was making TONS AND TONS of trap characters that I couldn't easily distinguish from one another, but still had many fans/etc. THEREFORE, I thought I'd see if making a character that would normally be a simple "ditzy girl character" would get the same kind of "trap character attention" as the others.

For the most part, people saw Tomato as a male ditz with cute clothes on. Which is essentially what he is, so hooray! Couldn't fool you lot. :V There was at least one person who praised me for how "original" Tomato was, though, which made me A LITTLE CONCERNED...

I actually think I've talked about this before. Huh. Anyways, these aren't complete thoughts and I didn't have one specific, CLEAR AND DISTINCT direction with Tomato. This is just one aspect of why I made him. I don't even think about that fact nearly at all, anymore. These days, when I think about Tomato, I like to figure through how Tomato is self-absorbed but simultaneously a caring person, and why someone like him makes simple minded decisions.

ANYWAY, I'm late for a thing, so I have to go now. THANKS FOR LISTENING TO ME TALK ABOUT MYSELF, I GUESS? Wah.

My tablet pen broke [FIXED!]

Mood: Extremely cross

I drew Noland because he is a whiny-butt, which I will also be for the time being.

I dropped my tablet pen on the floor a couple hours ago by accident. AND NOW IT DOESN'T WORK.

I'm so upset right now because it was working this morning, so I feel as if it should still work; and because I need to finish a commission for a friend, which I can't do now. Moreover, the tablet pens for the tablet model I have are nearly $50. I could replace it, but it feels too pricey for just a pen. I haven't searched for pen compatibility with other Wacom tablets, yet. Maybe a cheaper pen will still work on my tablet.

The eraser side still works, so maybe I can get used to using that. I just hate using that side, though, because I feel like it's scraping my tablet's surface when I'm using it.

I'll try to fix it tomorrow, or something. There are some tutorials online on how to fix it yourself. I feel like I may just break it, but since it's already broken I really have nothing to lose. :T

BAH.
HOPEFULLY, I FIX IT.

OKAY.
AKIOH, OUT.

Edit: I sort of fixed it! 8D; The pen works and the pressure sensitivity seems fine, but I can't use the right click button on the top of it anymore. (It's the button labeled #3 in this image.) I actually use that button a lot because it's a shortcut for the eye-drop tool on SAI, but I can just do that manually. SO WHATEVZ!
I still think I might want to buy a new pen, because I've dropped this one on the ground a lot... so who knows how broken it really is. But $50... I'll hold out for a little longer. xD;

Channeling my Inner Gabe

Mood: Mildly sleepy

After tonight, my respect for Gabe's "special talent" of hairstyling has increased a great amount. (Also, I just went back and looked at Gabe's profile... why did I put "being a TOTAL CREEP" as a special talent? xDD)

Since I haven't updated this world in a while, I haven't had the chance to tell you guys that I'm working on a Vanity Fanfare cosplay for Katsucon! :D I'm reeeally close to being done; I just have to do the wings. I did the shirt over winter break, and already own a pair of jeans and boots. I also bought a wig and goggles over break. My mom sent me the wig from her house so I could style it. :V Which is what I did today!

And my experience with styling is why I have developed this respect for Gabe. HAIRSTYLING IS SO HARD, MAN! HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE... Props to you, Gabriel. :V /talking to no one
I've always kind of wanted to try cutting hair, though, so I'm glad I decided to do this. xD;

ANYWAYS, yeah. Styling a wig. As you know, Vanity Fanfare kind of is bald on half of her head... whichhhh isn't really possible with a wig, so I did the only other thing I could think of. I decided to buy a two-toned wig, and cut the darker half really short. Here's the wig I bought:

Awwww, yeah. I tried to cut most of the black off so it looked like a short hairstyle. HERE'S THE RESULTS........

This is the white side, which I didn't do anything to. And...

BAM SHORT. Also, my eye is really freaky in this picture. Sorry about that. Oh, and if you look closely, you'll notice that Stefan lives on my wall.

BUT YOU KNOW, I HAD SUCH A HARD TIME WITH THIS. I was really scared to start at first because I didn't know what to do, but in the end I guess it came out decent. xD; I tried... really hard... and... things...........

And so there's that. On an unrelated note, I just finished watching Princess Jellyfish! :D IT'S REALLY GOOD! But rather PG-13 near the 2nd half. Nothing raunchy shown, just mildly raunchy conversation. Still, it was really good!! AND ONLY 11 EPISODES WHAT THE HEY. I want... a season 2... "orz At least the manga's there. I'll start reading that now, I guess. :9

Another anime I watched recently is that Madoka Magica thing! I was also happily surprised at how good it was, so that's also a good short watch if you haven't watched it yet. :V Though it's pretty grungy, especially compared to Princess Jellyfish. BUT STILL. NICE STORY, COOL CHARACTERS, YEAH.

Uuuummemmememmemem.... yeah, it's late here. I might go to bed now. NIGHT, GUYS! :D

Join.Me Livestream (offline)

Mood: Full of Ramen

Idk, I'm livestreaming! Because I don't know what else to do!
[click]

I kind of want to draw clothes. Come and keep me company, if you want! 8D; Or you can request a character (preferably an OC) for me to draw and the style of clothing, and I'll try to design some clothes for them. :)
Uh.
Yeah. 8D

Fashion Design World?

Mood: Moof. (Actually, I'm slightly tired. But I typed "moof" instead of "mood" at first, so...)
Currently working on: Revising part 2 of this, writing my post for the MCC, probably working on commissions, maybe my art summary (though I think it's a little early for that yet)

Happy Saturday, everyone! :) I have a question for yooooooou. I remembered that some years ago that I wanted to do a "Fashion Design world," and a couple of you said that'd be an interesting idea. The idea was that I and other guest posters would post fashion designs and things to the world, and people who want to use the designs could draw them on their characters so long as they credit the original designer. Then I thought we could have like, theme months and things like that, where people post designs based on a particular theme. Idk. SOMETHING LIKE THAT. POSTING CLOTHING DESIGNS AND LETTING PEOPLE USE THEM. I can only make one more world, so I'm thinking I want to use it to make that fashion world.

IDK, I THOUGHT IT'D BE FUN...! I would have a lot of fun with this world because I love drawing random clothes on my characters. I also notice that some people have trouble coming up with clothes for their characters to wear in pictures, so it'd be helpful for those people too.
So my question is this: If I decide to make the world, is there anyone who's interested in joining? xD;; If no one really wants to join, I probably won't make the world.

So uh.. yeah. That's that.

In other unrelated news, the semester is almost over! Or it technically already is. I have two more finals to go. :V SO YEAH! ALMOST WINTER BREAK!! 8) This school year has been pretty decent so far, so I hope next semester is as good as this one was... :,D

By the way, I forgot to tell you guys that I do commissions in real life, now! 8D; Sort of. I've sold a total of ~*~ONE~*~ commission, but I have 3 (1 for one person, 2 for another) more that I need to work on. SO THAT'S INTERESTING... I still need to figure out where I can print digital art. DOES ANYONE KNOW? I hear Walgreens is okay, but the colors turn out odd. SOMEONE! BRIEF ME ON PRINTING POSTERS! ;U; Please. xD;;;
Also, I'm not opening commissions online yet because I don't have a paypal/etc, and I don't really know if anyone's interested. xD WE'LL SEE, SOMETIME...

And um... yep. That's all. :D HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.