March Newsletter 2021 (Patreon)

Hello! Welcome to my first ever newsletter!
I’m currently starting this off on a Sunday afternoon listening to Fleet Foxes with background noise of the mourning doves outside my window. So I’d say it’s a wonderful day to do some writing!
I think with this being my first newsletter I wanna do somewhat of an artist introduction, with a little bit about myself personally, my artistic timeline, and just my art up until this point. Most newsletters aren’t going to be as long as this one, but since this is my first one I’m really putting all of my effort into making this a “meet the artist“ one. Once you all know about me, I promise the newsletters will be shorter, lol. First off I want to give a huuuuge thanks to everyone who’s pledged so far! It’s been what, 5 days and I’m already almost to my goal? It’s quite amazing honestly, I’m so happy that you all enjoy my art enough to support me every month. I think once I reach my goal I’ll consider starting a discord server to chat and share art, to just give people a nice warm space to chat and hang out! Feel free to give me feedback on whether or not that’s something you’d be interested in! I’m also so excited to mail out stickers to everyone, I like keeping busy so it’s going to be a fun activity for me! Anyways, I could probably ramble on forever about how grateful I am for my patrons, but I won’t do that so I’ll get into it now!

‘GET TO KNOW ME’

Well, maybe I should just start off at the very beginning first! I’ve always been interested in art. Im pretty sure I started drawing the moment I was born or something because I have absolutely no recollection of when I start drawing. My dad has drawings I did when I was like, 4, which at the time were just these potato people with stick arms. I have folders and folders somewhere of art I’ve done from about every year of my life. Honestly, it’s always just been such a huge part of my life I don’t think my life would have been the same without growing up with art. Honestly I think a big part of it also had to do with just constantly being surrounded by art too. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, it’s a small city but has a huge art culture. Most of my dads friends growing up were artists of some form, always encouraging me to draw and make new stuff. My dad worked a lot when I was really young so I spent a lot of time with these people who always inspired me when I was little. Honestly a lot of them currently follow me on Instagram and still keep in touch with me and it always kinda feels like having my old mentors congratulate me on how far I’ve come when they like/comment on my art, especially since a lot of them are very successful artists. I also was homeschooled for a few years, which I honestly think played a big role in my artistic expression because instead of having one short art class like in public school, I got to spend most of my schooling doing arts and crafts. I’d always be so excited when I’d finish my math for the day so I could just go ahead and work on my next craft project. Actually, in kindergarten I won an award for my art class where I got my art put up on a billboard! That was the first time I cried from happiness, and honestly the first time I realized my art was more than just a fun activity for me. Here’s some pictures of me with it, and the art I did, which was some sort of underwater scene!

With all that being said though, I didn’t have...the absolute best childhood. Sorry if this part ends up trailing off topic a bit, but I honestly feel like it still has a big play in my artistic career since everything that’s happened in my life has got me to where I am. There were lots of amazing parts, of course, but with my parents being divorced when I was 3, moving almost every year, going to a new school every year I wasn’t homeschooled, among a lot worse, more personal things, it wasn’t easy at all. All I wanted when I was younger was a normal childhood but that just never came, I kinda feel like I grew up waaay too fast, especially because instead of focusing on school and myself from about age 13-16 I was busy taking care of my siblings while my parents worked. This all played a huge role in my artistic skill though, I spent a lot of time alone in my room with the door shut stealing computer paper and doodling 50 pages a day of animals I liked, which at the time mostly was horses, dragons, wolves, warrior cats, and my little ponies (Seems not much has changed). Most of which were anthropomorphic too which obviously at the time I had no idea what Furries were. Here’s a few old pieces I did, I have much older ones somewhere but these are from around age 13-14.

Anyways, When I was 14 my dad got stationed in Turkey to be a history and English teacher On the military base. The first year I didn’t go with him, and lived with my aunt in Georgia instead. I wanted to be with my mom but she was living in Mexico at the time, and going to school there would have been hard since I didn’t know any Spanish. Living with my aunt ended badly, she’s very conservative and I was on the brink of realizing I wasn’t cis/straight, which ended up causing a lot of problems. I ended up going to turkey for 2 years after that to stay with my dad, which ended up being amazing. I really REALLY wish I could go back tbh. It was such a gorgeous country, it’s so underrated to be honest, no one thinks about going there on vacation but I 100% recommend it when it’s safe to travel. (Go to cappadocia, it’s my favorite place.) Here’s a pic of me (ew my cis self lmao) in cappadoccia horseback riding.

 I spent two years of highschool in turkey and honestly it was the best school experience ever. It felt like a family, there was pretty much no bullying, it was finally easy to make friends. I also was in my dads class which was weird, but it was fun! Except when he’d make jokes about things id do as a kid or say inside jokes to the entire class, lmao. It was also tons of fun being able to go to class, and then after class go to my teachers house and get to see them be drunk and party, then go to their class the next day like nothing happened, lmao, I really do miss that sense of community. Honestly I think that year of being in turkey was the year I first started taking commissions online. It was, when I still only did traditional art, and I sold fully finished reference sheets done with copic markers for $10. I mean I guess for being in high school that was a lot of money, lmao. I think ever since then, which was around 2013, I have been taking commissions and doing art for money. Here’s some stuff I did during that time.

After the amazing experience of being in turkey, I went back to Omaha to live with my mom. I didn’t necessarily want to, but my boyfriend at the time graduated high school and went to go live in Texas for college, so I wanted to at least be in the same country as him. Just I guess, stupid high school love shit. I went back to high school to a public high school called Central High School In Omaha. At the time my mom was working a lot, so when I wasn’t at school I was parenting my younger brother who was 5 at the time. It got to be really hard, especially comparing how amazing my experience in turkey was, I got extremely depressed. I was still doing art commissions to help my mom out, but I sold everything for extremely cheap so It was hard. I was 16 and ended up dropping out of highschool. I never went back or even got a GED. I was supposed to be homeschooled until graduation but with my mom working so much and me parenting I never got anything done and that ended up just fading away. My mom decided one day she was going to go back to Mexico, and knowing the situation would just be the same, I didn’t wanna go. I could have gone back to turkey, but this time my stepmom was living there now too with my dad (that’s another story though) so I didn’t want to go back there either. I decided to move in with my current boyfriend who was the guy I met in turkey, to Wichita falls Texas. Honestly im not going to go into detail about that experience but the entire time living with him was extremely dangerous yet I was still just...truckin along doing art commissions to survive, which was usually canned food or cheap Taco Bell every day since I couldn’t afford anything else and couldnt get a job since I was 16. After living with him for 2 years I finally broke up with him and moved on. I ended up just kinda, couchsurfing on random peoples couches for a year and a half, still supporting myself in art alone at the time. Had a few bad relationships in between there too. Finally, I met my current partner, and within a month moved in with them in New Jersey. Finally it was a sense of stability. I ended up getting a job at PetSmart as a dog bather. It was fun, but not my cup of tea. I quit twice and ended up going back and forth a few times. I’d always quit in order to give myself more time to focus on art instead, but was making no money because during that time I had maybe 20 followers on Twitter and didnt really know my style. The only people who commissioned me were my close friends. I also still only did traditional art at the time up until I finally got a bamboo tablet and an old laptop which is how I first started digital art, which was in 2017. It was honestly so hard to get used to at first, that I went back to traditional mostly. Finally in late 2018 I got my first iPad. I bought it off of my mom (which funny enough I had been using the same one up until about a week ago.) I think my art absolutely blossomed after this. Getting an iPad is my biggest recommendation for any digital artist, I honestly don’t think I’d be as successful as I am without it. I obviously wasn’t perfect right away, but my art improved so much within the first few months. Because of how accessible it was, I ended up selling art at a con for the first time ever that year (fwa 2018) it was an amazing experience and honestly around the time that I really started realizing “hey, I can actually do this.” Late 2018-2019 is when my audience really grew, I think I made Oliver late 2018 and making that character helped me a lot with experimenting with my art. I still worked at PetSmart at the time, and continued to up until I moved to Pennsylvania in 2019 and decided to do freelance fulltime. I was SO SO scared to start, i didn’t know if I’d be able to do it. This was also around the time I first started taking hormones and coming to terms with my gender identity, so lots of NEW stuff. It definitely didn’t start off with a bang, I still had to grow. But I was able to do it. I started experimenting more, making small merch items like little stickers and magnets, which I used to sell via google forms instead of Etsy. One day my friend said “hey your stuff is so cool, you should open a shop!” I was really scared tbh, I didn’t know how to package orders correctly or how to work Etsy. I definitely had flaws at the beginning, I wasn’t very “earth conscious“ with my packaging and would package like, one sticker in a big bubble mailer which was so unnecessary, but it was a learning experience! As is everything! Now, I currently live in Cincinnati, which isn’t forever, but I’m content right now. I’m dedicating most of my time to making merch and now, patreon! This year I really started taking bigger steps with things like hats, bigger charms, tote bags, etc. Because of COVID last year a lot of my passion went away and I promised I’d make up for it this year. I wanna just keep going bigger and better, with my next plans being bandanas, shirts, mugs, more clothing, and eventually even things like plushies and figurines! I honestly never thought I’d be where I am now 5 years ago, which is honestly what keeps me going. I still have plans for my future, such as wanting to live in either Canada or the PNW, and eventually having a job where I can be outdoors and interact with nature more ( dreams of being a park ranger at a national park ). For now I’m really happy with how far I’ve come, and I can’t wait to see what my future brings me. YOU are part of the reason I’m able to keep doing this by the way! And I love you for that! Anyways, I think that’s enough about me, so I think it’s time to talk about art in general now, and some of my processes.

“GENERAL ART”

First off I just wanna say, if you’ve ever told yourself you‘ll never learn to draw, you were wrong. Literally anyone can learn. You’ll get angry, cry, feel like you won’t make it, almost give up, constantly compare yourself to “better” artists, but this is part of it, I promise you. Some people start off early and learn at a young age, but not everyone had that and some people are just starting. All you have to do is push yourself, don’t give up, experiment, don’t be afraid to reference and even trace, there’s literally nothing wrong with it as long as you’re not, you know, stealing someone else’s art or ripping them off completely, haha. I genuinely don’t think there’s a such thing as being 100% original. We ALL take inspiration from things. Whether it be other artists, movies, books, games, childhood, ANYTHING! So don’t be scared to draw whatever you want despite what someone who’s on their high horse online says. Even professionals are inspired by something. Speaking of inspiration, lets talk about what inspires me!
I think a lot of my inspiration comes from my childhood, being very involved in nature as a kid. I wasn’t allowed to have any gaming devices and was limited to 30 minutes of tv a day, so all I had to do was draw or play outside. I became friends with a LOT of bugs. I like adding in little aspects of my childhood to my art, its comforting, which you might even feel too! I’m still inspired by nature a lot, it just constantly amazes me. If I could live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by an ocean and woods, my inspiration would never go away. Now, to talk about more direct inspiration like other artists and music and such. I grew up listening to a lot of the same music my parents listen to, which is honest still what I listen to. It’s a lot of Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine, Innocence Mission, The Cranberries, Johnny Cash, and Woodie Guthrie. Honestly this is just what’s at the top of my head for music that inspires me most, all of them are a bit different in genre, but all of them inspire me and remind me of Sunday “cleaning day” with my dad. I still listen to these a lot when Im working on art, and they really help keep me motivated. Obviously I like way more music too, I honestly like a bit of every genre. If you’re interested in some of the stuff I listen to that inspires me to draw, I have some good Spotify playlists. ”Retuning Home” and “favorites” in my playlists has been my biggest inspiration as of late.

Now, onto art inspiration.
I’m sure you can tell, but I’m very inspired by vintage art. I don’t think there’s too many modern artists I’m personally inspired by, well, probably inspired but don’t have as big of an impact on me as vintage art does. Vintage art just gives me such a warm feeling of sitting in a warm room surrounded by your favorite people drinking a hot chai, or laying in tall grass on a summer day. Some of my favorite artists of this genre would definitely have to be Natalia Trepenok, which is a Russian folktale artist. Im quite frankly obsessed with vintage animal art from Russia. Walton Ford, who’s an amazing wildlife artist, his work is realistic in a way but has so much personality. Gennady Spirin, who’s done a lot of storybook illustration. Evgeny Rachev, whos a Ukrainian folktale artist. Beatrix Potter, who’s probably a lot more well known for her Peter Rabbit and Tom Kitten illustrations. I’m also very inspired by old vintage taxonomy and nature books, as well as medieval art and tapestries. I think all of these artist have played a huge role in the direction my art has taken, and part of me wishes I could tell them how much they’ve inspired me! I’ve put together some examples of all of these below! 

Now, onto my personal processes. These are just kinda my defaults, and most of the explaining is on the images themselves. Of course my art is not limited to these, I love experimenting and trying new things. These are honestly just my comfort settings and what I feel gives them the “Mothsprout look.”

I hope these could help in some way or at least understand some of my processes! Sorry I didn’t go as in depth with this part, theres tons of other little things I do to make my art “me” but that’ll have to be for a separate post where I can post more step by steps and go more into detail.

Well, I’m gearing up towards the end of this newsletter, so before I end it lemme answer some Q&A! Thank you if you left a question, I’m always happy to answer!

Q: do you have any of your designs tattooed on you?

A: nope! Sadly...I don’t have any tattoos at all. I have 4 piercings but I really want tattoos! I had plans last year but that didn’t happen bc of covid. Idk if I’d ever get my own design bc I feel like I’d hate it later on, but maybe one day I will!

Q: Do you have any tips to keep on track for projects? Any self discipline tips to help grow as a artist, maybe tips on how to stick to a style? What motivates you?

A: Honestly I’m kinda bad at keeping track of projects, I abandon a lot of them and never finish them or completely forget, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it! I think something that kinda helped me though was just making a separate folder for all my unfinished work. As for self discipline tips, I think the best thing I taught myself was to just not limit myself. Draw as much as you want in a day, draw as little as you want, I think forcing myself to draw constantly made me burn out sooo much faster. Take breaks! Please! I’ve found my art was better after taking breaks. What motivates me most honestly is just looking back on where I was years ago compared to now and realizing I’ll probably be in an even better situation with my art and myself in a few years. You can only get better!

Q: Do you have any advice for artist when out of high school?

Also seeing your inspirations would be really nice! Either other artists or just things that you enjoy :3

A: Well, if you read my previous parts of the newsletter you’ll see I didn’t finish highschool. I immediately just started trying to survive off of art which was good and bad. If I could tell myself one thing from then it would be to draw more of what you love, not what you think others will like. And that it’s okay to start small! No big artist made it overnight. And to add onto the other question, that was all addressed previously via inspiration section!

Q: I feel like a lot of furr artists and non furs got into art as a medium by a certain movie or franchise aka balto etc!

Was there a certain animation that did that for you? That brought you in the fandom?

A: This question also kinda goes hand in hand with my inspirations, but if we’re talking about solely animation, I think I watched lion king every day for 4 years as a kid, which is funny bc I don’t really draw lions but that’s definitely where my liking to hyenas came from. I also used to watch a lot of vintage cartoons which adds a lot to my style I think!

Well, I think it’s kinda time for me to close this. Sorry if this seemed cut short, but It’s now 6pm and I’ve spent way too much time writing this, and my hands hurt lol. but if you did read this far, thank you! It means a lot to me that you’re so interested in hearing what I have to say, even if I’m just blabbering the whole time. Thank you so so much for supporting me, I hope you all have a wonderful beginning of spring, or whatever the weather may be wherever you’re from, and I look forward to posting more patreon content for you lovely people! Thank you!

-Moth