LAST UPDATE 2/7/2024
May I draw your characters/creations?
Absolutely! Send me a link if you want me to see. As long as you aren’t claiming ownership or using my creations directly for your own profit I don’t mind.
May I make an OC of one of your species?
Sure, as long as you aren’t selling it or claiming to have made the species. Please credit the species to me if you’re posting about it publicly.
Are your designs open or closed species?
Neither, by the adoptables terminology. They are my intellectual property and I’m using them for various published works, presently and in the future.
May I repost your art?
If it’s to a site I don’t use (like a subreddit, a forum, or an image board) and you’re crediting me as the source with a link, go ahead. When in doubt, just ask.
Why didn’t you respond to my message?
I receive a LOT of messages from people, I literally can’t respond to all of them. Other than that there are many possible reasons:
Don’t worry about it too much. Send it again if you’re desperate.
Can you help me with this design?
Maybe? The more specific you are and the more context you give me, the more likely I will be able to give you a worthwhile reply. I can’t always help though– this is what I do for a living, I spend a lot of time solving tough design problems for my own work and I’m not always eager to do it for free for a stranger on the internet. I only have so many hours in the day.
What’s your design process?
That’s like asking how I make food, there’s a lot of different processes involved depending on the finished product. I talk about some of them and advise others on character design and fictional biology here.
How do you research for designs?
I take classes on biology and science, read a lot of online resources for both real and speculative science, and spend a lot of time shaking image search and Youtube upside down until the information I want falls out of their pockets. I also talk to friends who know more about specialist topics like engineering than me. Science-topic Discord servers can be a real life saver in this regard.
May I use your designs/characters/setting for a tabletop game?
While this is technically fine as long you aren’t making a profit off of the game somehow, I’d much rather you make your own monsters and characters. It’s uncomfortable at best seeing the characters and worlds I’ve spent years writing for transplanted into someone else’s creative universe.
May I use your monsters/characters/setting as inspiration for my own?
Well, if you’re having to ask me for permission, either your design is too similar or you’re being overly nervous about a normal artistic process. You’re absolutely free to use my work as a source of inspiration but I’d strongly encourage you to think about the details from my design you like most, and remix them with other concepts into your own unique take.
May I kin your characters?
I'm going to perfectly honest and say outright that I don't understand how this sort of thing works. But I can't tell you how to organize your own brain, so the only thing I ask is that you respect the separation between whatever you keep in your brain, and what I keep in mine. Please don't tell me what to do with stories and people I've made up, or claim to be an authority on some "truer" version of them.
May I draw your characters/creations… being sexy…
Sure, don’t contact me about it though. I don’t mind if you think my characters and concepts are hot, but I’m not very interested in hearing about it. Please don’t assume that I made something to be titillating for myself just because it’s titillating for you.
May I draw your underage/child-like/non-sapient characters… being sexy…
Absolutely not.
Why don’t you draw ____ anymore?
I have many, many long term projects. Any project I create is at risk of abandonment or LONG hiatuses. And sometimes, I just lose interest! That’s life!