What's up, nerds? B) (jk i love u guys *mwah*)

I will be taking part in Art Fight this year!

That's right! For the first time in ever, you will have the chance to fight me... with art!

I've known about AF for a while now but never joined since I only started my art journey relatively recently. As such, I am very much looking forward to taking part this year! If you'd like, feel free to check out my (currently unfinished) Art Fight Page, and maybe give me a follow! (I will likely be prioritizing mutuals for the first bit of July, so that'll increase my chances of attacking you first) No pressure tho :P

Hope to see you out on the battlefield! Oh and

GO TEAM FOSSILS!!!

Happy (2 days late lol) Pico Day everyone!!

I wanted to post this on time, but between my busy-ass schedule and a multi-day power outage, it just wasn't possible. :/ This is my first ever Pico day so I wanted to make a special tribute to thank @tomfulp for making a place where artists and creatives can truly thrive!

I spent a lot of my time during the power outage reading the Calvin and Hobbes Ten Year Anniversary book in which author and cartoonist Bill Watterson recounts his experience creating his comic. Throughout the book, he details his constant fight for creative liberty and artistic integrity; explaining how he consistently turns down countless requests and offers to further commercialize his work with merchandise and spinoffs. He emphasizes the importance of respecting one's own art and not succumbing to needless commercialism that may jeopardize the integrity of the original work. His insights and perspective, in my opinion, translate nicely to the modern landscape of art and media on the internet.

Most sites nowadays often put profits first, incentivizing creators to optimize the production of their work to be as profitable as possible with the least effort possible. YouTube is a good example of this. Early YT was a much different place from what it is today, where everyone was just posting whatever they wished, occasionally building a small following if their content was entertaining enough. There was little to no expectation of profit for creators, so people just made whatever they wanted because it was fun to. Now, with the advent of algorithms and changed monetization, many modern YouTubers are forced to overwork themselves or hire expensive production teams just to try and stay relevant. It's that, or become buried under thousands of hours of passionless slop content, which frankly, sounds exhausting. As more sites become this sort of algorithmic nightmare, it makes me miss an earlier internet where people were just creating dumb fun stuff because they wanted to (Alongside an admittedly huge supply of questionable and disturbing content lol). So then, imagine my surprise when I discovered Newgrounds!

Newgrounds is what I believe the internet should be: a haven of creativity where people are rewarded for skill and experience, rather than because an algorithm said so. It is a community in which people can share their passion projects and work and actually see valuable engagement from other real people, free of AI junk and spambots. The community itself is also extremely welcoming to newcomers in my experience, with people appreciating your hard work and offering constructive criticism where applicable. It's been a very positive space for me and I am endlessly grateful to everyone who has accepted me into this little world of creativity. I'd also like to offer a huge thank you to Tom and the rest of the NG team for continuing to improve and support this place; you guys are all amazing!!

Anyways, that's enough yapping from me. I hope you all had a very fun Pico day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!

- Nat <3

Happy April 1st, ladies, lads and nonbinary chads...

The Crazy Clown Collab is Out NOW!!!

We did it, friends; our circus is finally open to the public! This project wouldn't have been possible if not for the contribution of 120 talented artists donning their clown makeup for this occasion! In terms of first collabs I'd say this one has been exceedingly successful, and I'm very grateful for everyone who took part.

Putting together the final scene was a fun challenge for me, and it went through several iterations before I landed on something I liked. Initially, I anticipated this being a much smaller collab, with maybe like 20 or so submissions. As such I considered making a slightly more detailed background scene with more props and such for the clowns to interact with.

This is a rough early sketch for the background scene. I considered adding a small stage and maybe some hoops for clowns to jump thru etc., but I didn't get around to adding any props other than the tightrope. (Which itself would soon be removed when I eventually decided to ditch the props altogether)

This is the final bg with all the clowns removed. It's pretty simple, but I wanted the clowns to be the main focal point, especially as the submissions continued to roll in. I believe this is what the kids nowadays call a liminal space. :P

Organizing so many clowns was a bit of a challenge; trying to manually sort over a hundred layers in CSP is not my idea of a good time. So, I decided to organize them into a number of folders, ordered from closest to furthest. This made my life a lot easier, and made individual adjustments much more manageable. I did my best to make each clown as visible as possible, without making any particular clowns seem like the main focus.

I also had a fun time adding a few cheeky interactions between the clowns based on their poses and designs. There are a few of these, so keep an eye out for some silly details here and there.

And that's about everything! I'd like to once again offer a huge thank you to everyone involved in this goofy little project; it never could have happened without you! Happy April 1st, everyone, and thanks for clowning along with me

~ Nat <3

Attention, one and all:

The Crazy Clown Collab ends in one week!!!

That's right! One week from today (March 25 at 11am EST), the circus tent closes and the clowns will prepare for their grand debut! Get your clown makeup, ready your juggling pins and head on down to the CCC thread if you'd like to join! Even if you aren't planning to join our little circus, you should still give the thread a scroll thru, as we have received nearly 80 submissions!! So send in the clowns; there's always more room in our circus tent!

Once again for clarity:

Submissions close March 25 at 11am EST!!!

Any submissions received afterwards may not be added (unless it's like a couple minutes late or something, I'm not your strict professor lmao)

Idk why tf I chose that as the title of this post but I'm not fully awake yet so we're going with it... anyways

It's my birthday!

I am now a healthy 23 years old. What a number! A lot has changed over the past few years, but I'm optimistic that these next few are gonna be some really good ones.

What will the future hold?

My 22nd year was one of growth and change; learning to better myself after a time of loss. So, 23 is when I'll take it all to the next level and really use the things I've learned! I intend to deep dive into art and continue to improve, the progress of which I will certainly share on this blessed site.

I'd also love to get to know some of you all a little better! I've met a lot of really cool people through newgrounds, so I'd love to have the chance to build those friendships even more this year.

Let's not forget about the clowns!

The Crazy Clown Collab has been thriving so far, with dozens of submissions by many talented artists! This is my first collab I've ever organized, so I wasn't sure how many people would take to the idea, but a lot of folks seem to really like the concept! I look forward to compiling it all come March 25th.

And that's about everything I can think to say right now! Thanks to everyone who's supported me so far, and thanks to everyone who's taking part in my first ever collab! Here's to another year on the silly little orb we call home.

Love yall,

Nat

You ever think clowns get a bad rap nowadays? From killer clowns to murderous mimes, our beloved balatrons have become a symbol of horror and death. This, I say, is an utter travesty, and must be amended. That's where you come in!

Introducing...

THE CRAZY CLOWN COLLAB!!!

WHY AND HOW?

The aim of this collab is to help fight the undue slander that clowns and their kin have faced since 2016 and beyond. You can do your part by drawing a clown doing what they do best: trying to make people smile! Draw a clown getting pelted with pies, a jester juggling pins, or a mime mimicking some invisible scenario. If it's fun and chaotic, then go for it!

RULES

• This is an E rated collab, so keep things family friendly (No blood or anything overly suggestive)
• You may draw one of your OCs as a clown, draw a Newgrounds character as one, or make a new character all together; the choice is yours!
• Max image size 1000x1000 on a transparent background. The final scene will be all of the clowns in one big-top circus tent, so this will make it a lot easier to add everyone. (So nothing animated either)
• One clown per person for now, but I may allow more a bit closer to the deadline depending on how many participants we get here.
• All artists allowed, scouted or otherwise. Do put in your best effort, however!
• Submit entries via the thread.
• NO KILLER CLOWNS! This one's an obvious one, but it would go against the very serious and not-at-all tongue in cheek agenda I have going on here. You may however draw a character that is typically within this category but doing some harmless pranks or otherwise being a lil goober. (I.e. The Joker but he's spraying people with water or something)
• DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS MARCH 25 (I plan to upload the collab on April 1st, so this will give me a week to compile everything)

That's about everything! If you'd like to participate or if you have a question, then go check out the thread!

Student loans are kicking my ass, so you know what that means...

Commissions are NOW OPEN!!!

That's right! Now you can make me draw whatever the hell you want! (Within reason [see above sheet]) I've been wanting to start doing commissions for a while now, so here it is!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Pricing (Incase you missed the attachment above, or just can't read my handwriting lmao. All in USD):

Icon/Headshot: 7$

Half-body: 11$

Full-body: 15$

By default it'll come with a single color background, but you can add a more detailed background for just 5$ (I am admittedly not the best at backgrounds yet, generally speaking, so survey my work to see if it's worth it or not lol)

Additional characters are +90% of original cost, before backgrounds, so a two character full body piece with a background will be 33.50$ (15$ OG + 13.5$ Additional Char + 5$ BG). You can currently add up to 3 additional characters.

Pricing is as presented for now, but depending on how this first run goes, I might adjust a few things here and there. This will only affect future purchases, however; anything bought now will be priced as is.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Rules:

When it comes to do's and don'ts, I have a few things that I'm not completely closed off to, along with a few things that I will most certainly not do. I figured I'd list these out to try and clarify intentions

Will draw:

• Your OCs, or the OCs of your friends (with their permission!!)
• Your favorite character from a movie, game etc.
• Your pets as animal crossing characters
• Other family friendly stuff along these lines.

Might draw (Ask beforehand)

• Furry / anthro characters (I don't have much experience but I'm willing to try!)
• Light / tasteful romance stuff (Leaning against eachother, some smoochin maybe, but nothing more than that)
• Anything involving my OCs (Heavy maybe. I'll only do these if someone has a funny idea that I like)

Will NOT draw:

• NSFW
• Gore/violence
• Politics/hate art
• Complex mechanical designs
• Anything that doesn't sit right with me for any reason

I reserve the right to turn down any request that I'm not comfortable drawing, even if not explicitly listed here. No means no.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Payment:

For now, payment will be thru Ko-Fi, though I might change this later depending on how well it all works out. Payment will be up front, and with no refunds, so be sure you'd like to purchase my services before requesting. No takesies backsies!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Final product:

Commissions should be completed and sent ~2-4 days after request, depending on complexity/traffic/personal life. I believe that Ko-Fi has a way to directly send the final art to the client, but I'm not positive on the details. You may request I send it thru email or Newgrounds file dump link if you'd prefer. I will most likely post my finished commissions here as well, but I won't post if directly asked not to. I can also keep the commissioner anonymous should they wish to be.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

And that's about it! It took me a while to decide if and how I'd do my first run of commissions, and there are a lot of moving parts to all of this that I'm still figuring out. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to DM me, and I'll do my best to be transparent about the whole process, along with any issues that may (but hopefully won't) occur.

Happy New Years, Ladies, Lads and Nonbinary Chads!

2024's coming to an end and I get to make my first year-end summary post on Newgrounds! Wow!

It's been a wild year from start to finish, and a lot has changed in my life, with one of the best being that I finally joined Newgrounds! (Ok, technically I've had this account since 2021, but I was just kind of a lurker who never really posted stuff) It all started when I wanted to learn digital art in order to make Visual Novel sprites, and I remembered I had an old drawing tablet that I hadn't touched since high school. After messing around with it for a bit, I wanted to find a place to post my art progress and sure enough I landed on NG! My first posts were a few rough doodles of Animal Crossing characters I did while learning how to use Clip Studio Paint.

I timed my arrival here exquisitely as @Oddlem 's OCtober started around then, so I went ahead and drew the first drawing of my main OC Nat for day 1:

Isn't she gorgeous??? Okay but fr, this was rough. I knew practically nothing about the different pens you could use and pretty much just used the pencil tool for everything, including the coloring lmao. It took me a few days to get a handle on the software, and the quality fluctuated greatly between each post. I made a series of review blogs going over all of my days if you'd like to see just how much I improved and learned during this time. Improvement wasn't the only thing I gained thru OCtober, however, as I also met a lot of really cool people through it!

To shout out a few peeps (in no particular order), I met @ChazDude , @SomeDoodles , @ZenonRetna , @GoldShinx , @CappyCatII , @Gribbus07 , @TheJamarillo, @rekt-haus , @DosieDonut , @Coolusername225 , @BallsyMerc and @BargonSpaceman , to name a few, but there were a lot of cool folks involved in OCtober. (If I forgot anyone who sees this, plz lemme know, I'm tired and don't trust myself to have everyone listed lol)

Getting to see everyone's work and interact along the way was awesome, and the event really made me feel welcomed and involved in a way that few things have before. After this point, I'd pretty much fallen in love with Newgrounds, and made it a point to get involved with as much Newgrounds shiz as I could. I went on to sign up for numerous collabs, and got busy doodling my entries for them:

Alien Collab:

Smash Bros Collab (Not Out Yet):

Astro Bot Collab (Not Out Yet):

Among others that I don't have designated posts for.

Another stand out was that I took part in my first couple Art Trades! I put out a post on my Bluesky asking if anyone was interested and I ended up doing trades with fellow OCtober enjoyers ChazDude and Rekt-haus!

ChazDude:

Rekt-haus:

This was a lot of fun and I'd love to do more of these in the future!

Shortly after the art trades, I got to take part in my first ever NG Secret Santa!! I got @omakkekii, who had a really cool character design that was a ton of fun to draw!

I also received my secret santa from the awesome @CrayonJackie :

It turned out really cool, so thanks a ton for giving me my first ever Tankmas gift! :D

The final big development was that I was picked for one of the NG drawing tablet giveaways! This was a huge win as my old tablet was really small and super old. Sometimes it just straight up wouldn't work lol. I've used the new one for my last several projects and I'm loving it so far; it's so smooth and its wider workspace lets me properly use my shoulder for longer and smoother lineart. I wanna offer a massive thank you to @TomFulp , along with everyone who donated to make those giveaways a possibility. You all have shown me just how welcoming Newgrounds is to newer artists, and I look forward to improving and growing alongside all of you! I won't letcha down!

And that's pretty much everything! I've only been here for a few months so my end of year summary isn't as long as some people's but it's certainly not lacking in weight! So much has happened in such a short time and I am absolutely stoked to see what happens in 2025!

Here are a few final shoutouts to finish things off:

@Lizmas for drawing Nat as Spamton:

@Finasty , @2121Fancy07 , @Zakeblue1 , and @Evanora for bein cool dudes

(Again, if I forgot anyone, plz lemme know. I promise it isn't personal, I'm just bad at keeping track of a large list of names lmao)

Thanks a million to everyone who read this, and moreover to those who've followed me on my silly little doodle journey here on NG! Hope you all had a great holiday season, and I wish you all the best in 2025!!!

Money's been getting real tight lately, so you know what that means: time to ask strangers on the internet for money! :DDD Ok but all jokes aside, I've been thinking of ways I can monetize my art somehow and I'm thinking I might give commissions a try. I'm not opening them right this minute as I'm not confident enough in my abilities or art-style, but I have gone ahead and made a Ko-Fi account to get a head start. If you've got a few extra dollars burning a hole in your pocket then don't be afraid to send them my way! But, if money's an issue for you as well, save it and put it towards something that will directly benefit you. (like a bag of pretzel M&M's perhaps heheheh) That, or save it for when I do open commissions, then I can doodle one of your characters for a couple bucks or something.

Also, just to set expectations, I will not be doing anything that would be labeled as adult on newgrounds, so no NSFW, no gore, and no odd fetishy stuff. I also probably won't accept furry commissions right away as that's a whole other ball park I'm not quite ready for, but I'd be open to learn if you reaaaallly want me to draw ur fluffy lil characters (as long as they are family friendly lmao)

That's about all for now, but I'll post another update when I'm ready to do commissions for real! Feel free to leave a comment if you might be interested in a commission in the future, and thanks for listening to my yapping. (or reading ig, this is the internet (unless you have one of them fancy-ass text to speech reader plugin thingamajigs in which case thanks for listening (these are far too many parentheses)))

I've met a lot of cool ppl thru newgrounds in the few months of actively participating and someone said networking is good, so I made a BlueSky account! I understand this is what all the cool kids are using since Twitter shat itself. I've never been a huge social media fan, but thought this could be a fun way to reach out a bit more, so yee