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Kiyo is my Naruto oc. She's a character I created to fit into the Naruto world. She's a Konohagakure ninja, usually very small in stature, varying between petite and curvy, but usually pretty thin. She usually has long hair, and is usually pretty pale. She usually has a scar somewhere on her body, and wears feminine clothing. She comes from a wealthy family, has some slight rebellious princess syndrome, wanting more than what life has given her, although what she desires is never really anything material. Mostly just meaningful relationships. She's hard to satisfy since she doesn't even really know what she's truly after in life.

Now, I hope you realized that for most of that paragraph, I chose to use the term "usually" many times in those statements. This is on purpose, due to the fact that Kiyo's appearance, clan, name, and backstory have changed many many times over the years since I first created her in the 4th grade. Kiyo has been everywhere, from a "Mary sue" white haired adopted Inuzuka who dated Neji, all the way to a blue haired child of Konan and Nagato who secretly ran away from Deidara. She's been a mean brunette Nara or Hyuuga clan member who paired with Gaara, and an annoying energetic girl who hailed from the Yamanaka that dated Suigetsu. She's seen things. Been things. Many more things than I have just described.

Kiyo has a well deserved reputation among the community as being amorphous. It gets my followers angry. I understand why, as most people would just wish I'd find a story I enjoyed for her, an appearance, and would just STICK to it and be happy. Now, when it comes to this, it's a bit difficult, but I will do my best to explain why further on in this passage.

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Kiyo has been a part of me ever since I was a young girl. In the fourth grade I had discovered Naruto due to one of my best friends at the time, and we would play games pretending that we were ninjas in Naruto world, and went by different names and basically lives. This was me acting out and playing as an OC before even knowing what an OC was. When I discovered youtube videos of people editing screenshots of the Naruto anime on Microsoft Paint and Paint.net, I decided I wanted to give it a go, and draw out my own Naruto character for once and see what I could create.

Instantly, I was hooked. I spent hours a day just editing photos for quite a few years. I uploaded a few of those images on Photobucket, since that's where i thought the 'cool popular artists' were uploading theirs, and I knew screenshot edits weren't allowed on Deviantart. Around this time, I really looked up to users like Spiritofwater, Black-Pantheress, and Shizuebluepower. I thought to myself that my art would never be good enough for me to get popular, but honestly that didn't stop me from trying. I kept at it, my designs changing over and over again with every new idea that popped into my brain. I was a little messy, but I told myself that I just had to find the one and I would be set.

I began my own Youtube channel, in order to show everyone what I was doing, since I thought other people's speedpaints were cool and I wanted to make my own. I drew out my ocs, and never really got popular, but I was excited to even get a few hundred views. I was excited that I was able to share my work with the world, and that people even wanted to see it at all. One day, I was experimenting with a livestream, and that's where I encountered some people that really changed the game for me when it came to interacting with the Naruto OC community. They asked me if I had an instagram account for my OC, which I did, and I was invited to join a Kik group with a bunch of other people that had Naruto OCs. Honestly, to me, this was mind blowing at the time. I didn't really speak to like more than 2 or 3 people in the community before this, and mostly just did open collabs that I found on Photobucket and stuff if I wanted to involve other people's characters. In this Kik group, I met a lot of people that I will probably remember for the rest of my life. They taught me a little about networking myself in the community, really getting myself out there, told me terms that were frequently used, and we all gave each other art tips. It was honestly amazing how my shy self went from like 14 followers and like 3 photos on Instagram to like, really interacting and getting recognition and hundreds of likes on my edits. I was happy that I was being noticed, and a lot of people mentioned that they did recognize me from youtube and stuff, but just didn't think that I had any other form of social media. (Little did they know that I was an AVID Neopets Naruto OC roleplayer when I was younger LOL)

During this time, though, Kiyo was still changing. Her appearance. Her pairing. Her jutsu. Even recognition and a following couldn't seem to force me to sit tight and stay with a singular design. It was beginning to aggravate me, and that's when I first started getting a bit of backlash about it. People made comments about how they were frustrated with me, and that I should just choose something already. I understood and knew where they were coming from, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, and at that time I didn't really even know as to why. I continued on, still without knowing what was happening or where I was going as an artist.

I started to think about it to myself, and actually kind of came up with a theory as to what makes my indecisiveness ruin Kiyo's presence as a sole being LOL. It took me many years, but it was interesting to look back and think to myself "yeah, this kind of makes sense."

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The part you've been waiting for! There are actually 2 parts to this theory, and they both make sense, but I'm not exactly sure if they make sense with each other in tandem. But we will see LOL.

Theory: I Am Never Satisfied.
The explanation behind this one is that I honestly really just want to present Kiyo in the best light that I can, and as I evolve as an artist, some things about her just don't appeal to me anymore. I want her to literally be the best that I can present her, and it's honestly pretty hard and tiring. A lot of times I invent a look for her, and then I just stare at it for a while, and then I'm like "why would I ever choose this, when I could LITERALLY do anything else?"

This method of thinking also moves itself over to her story and background, usually altering who I choose to pair her with. I think about how my designs are all subpar, and everyone else is easily able to make these iconic and beautiful designs and have them for years, and yet, I get stuck thinking about Kiyo and how ugly she is and how basic she is and how I'm going to be stuck drawing that same exact design for years to come and I just really don't ever want to limit myself like that. It's really bothersome. My moods change easily, my ideals for her aesthetic change easily, and my art changes with my mood to be honest. I use Kiyo as an outlet of expression.

The reason as to why I don't just make a bunch of Kiyos is because Kiyo is sort of my personal lense into the Naruto world. If anything, she's my self insert that never looks anything like me LOL. I'd never want to make her look like me because I want to be out there and original and creative with my designs. I want her to be her own person, but at the same time I want to have control over who she is and have the ability to see the world through her eyes. I often have so many ideas and stories and stuff hidden in my brain, but it's almost impossible for me to move that to paper, or, well, to screen.

At the same time as me wanting to create Kiyo for my own personal enjoyment, I also want other people to like her. I want her to be popular and well known, if I'm being 100% absolutely honest. I know for a fact it could never happen because of the way that I treat and neglect her as a character, but it's just honestly the secondary goal that I work towards while I redesign her. I think about what other people would say about her, if they would like her, if she's "Mary Sue" or not, if she's weak, if she's overpowered, if her designs are cliche, etc. It's a lot to process and when I focus too much (or at all) on other people's opinions of her, I don't love Kiyo 100 percent like I should. It's irritating.

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Well, we are nearing the end of this textual journey, and I want to preemptively give a thank-you to all that have gotten this far and actually want to know about my thought processes, whether they're valid or not. As for the future of Kiyo, she's probably going to change again. It's inevitable. Honestly, like, there's no other way for me to put it. I honestly am scared that I do not have the art technique that I desire to accurately display Kiyo as a character sometimes, and it's kind of frustrating to me. But at the same time, it also pushes me to work harder so that I WILL have that skill eventually and will be able to show off Kiyo how I 100% envision her. I'm going to try not to think about if Kiyo is a "Mary Sue" or not in the future. Honestly, I'm going to try not to give a darn about what ANYONE besides ME thinks of Kiyo going forward. Because, at the end of the day, she is my character and my character alone, and she deserves that sort of attention and love from me. Like, honestly, if I wanted to pair Kiyo with like half of the Akatsuki or something I would be able to do it. Nobody would be able to stop me. They'd all hate my character immediately, but like, who is there to stop me besides myself? My followers? No?? My friends? No???? Nobody has to like her or understand her except me. I can show as much or as little of her as I would like, and there's honestly nothing anybody can do about it. To me, this is exciting and liberating, but also a little scary :^) It makes me happy. I hope you all get to follow along on the journey of myself as an artist and character creator, through the eyes of Kiyo and her life as a Shinobi. See you all there~ :^)

Hello, hello! Across other platforms (instagram), I am known as kind of a huge butthead for going on long stupid rants and claiming that "editing is not art." Because I feel this way, a lot of editors have taken it to mean that they think that I ABSOLUTELY ALWAYS hate editing and think it's dumb and pointless and something nobody should be doing, but to be honest, they have that pretty wrong. So wrong, in fact, that I decided that it would be helpful for me to write a guide about the positives of editing, and how to transition from being an editor and taking that next step towards being an actual digital artist. <3

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Just because I do not think that editing is considered "art", does not mean that there are not some benefits to be found in it. For everyone in the community that I surround myself with, most of us started out as editors and branched off into becoming fully fledged digital artists, me included. Editing as a process helps absolute beginners get a feel for the digital art programs that they are working with, such as Paint Tool Sai, Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop, Medibang, Gimp, etc etc. Through editing, beginners get to focus more on what sorts of tools they are using at a slower pace in order to understand them. While I believe this helps ABSOLUTE beginners, after a short period of time, I believe editing ends up harming more instead of helping. Because they are editing, nobody really has to think about things such as anatomy, composition, perspective, line weight, etc. in their artwork. Instead, all they focus on is transforming someone else's character into their own. In order to help guide those who are stuck in the editing phase that want to move on towards becoming a digital artists, below are a few tips that I believe are very helpful!

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1. Stop using the line tools. (if you have a tablet)

Recently, I did a little bit of an editing experiment, where I edited a photo of Ryuuzetsu, a character from the Naruto movie Blood Prison. My goal in doing this was to really remind myself of what it is like to edit, as I hadn't done so in such a long time. During the process, I was forced to use the "curve tool." The curve tool in Paint Tool Sai is a tool that helps you in lining your work by only making you click on specific points of your photo while the program basically maps out the line art for you. I used to LOVE using the curve tool when I was younger, since it made me work super fast, and all the lines came out the same exact uniform weight and looked neat and tidy.

However, after transitioning to doing my line art on my own, by using a small brush, I was able to get a whole bunch more character into my artwork. My lines had different thicknesses and weights to them, and basically overall, pieces started getting done MUCH faster when I learned how to line on my own. When I went back to using the curve tool during my experiment, I learned that the curve tool is VERY clunky in comparison, and takes much longer to make look right, as pointy edges aren't exactly the best thing to make with the curve tool. Once you get a hang of doing your own line work, your transition towards not using bases becomes much easier. Although you CAN draw on your own and use the line tool over your own original art, trust me, getting used to actually drawing with your tablet on your canvas gets MUCH easier if you're doing it yourself.

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2. Try to draw your character NEXT to the canon character.

When I was towards the end of my career of using bases, I would get frustrated extremely often. I saw everyone using the same poses of the same people over and over again. It was annoying. I wanted my character to look unique and stand out. And so, instead of editing my character over Sakura's body, like I had done for the thousandth time, I actually took the time to draw out my character NEXT TO Sakura. I referenced Sakura's proportions and face shape and all that good stuff, whilst drawing my oc next to her. I believe that this is a CRUCIAL step towards emerging from editing and going into the digital art world. It really helped me out SO much.

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3. Don't have a tablet? Don't worry!

Tons of editors always seem to give the excuse that they edit because they do not own tablets and are doing all of their work from their mouse or trackpad. However, there is a surprisingly simple way to get around this! There is NOTHING stopping you from drawing out your character traditionally on paper, taking a quick photo of it, uploading it to your computer, and continuing from there! You end up with the same result as if you had done it all on the computer!

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4. Stop comparing yourself to other artists.

I know, this seems like the golden "yeah we all basically already know this" sort of tip, but you would be surprised at how many people do this anyways, in more ways than you might think! A huge fraction of the editors I surrounded myself with edited simply because they think that their original art isn't beautiful enough, because their original artwork doesn't get as many likes as their edited work, or they see someone else's ~beautiful work~ and get envious. If I'm being completely truthful, that envy never goes away. Ever. Whether you drew on your own your whole life, or are an editor currently, you will always feel like SOMEONE is better than you and that your work isn't good enough. That alone either makes or breaks an artist. Some end up quitting, but others end up pushing ahead. They work past this and improve over time, no matter how slow or quick it may be. They eventually end up being the people that OTHERS look up to. It won't take overnight. Heck, it won't even take just a few months. It's a long process, but giving up guarantees you will never get there.

You are not Masashi Kishimoto. Your artwork is not exactly like his. Does that make you any worse of an artist? NO. It took me a long time to realize that my work doesn't have to look like his, or anyone else's AT ALL in order to be beautiful. All you have to do is keep giving YOUR best, and improvement will come. There are still days where I feel like everything I make is disgusting, but the days where I feel really proud of myself make everything worth it. Your ugly drawing is someone else's masterpiece.

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SOOO YEAH!! LOL That's basically all I have for now. If I think of some more, I may add them on, but we will see how that goes. Hope this helped even the tiniest bit, even though my writing style is disgusting, and I'll be surprised if anyone can, like, keep up with any of this lmao.

Hey there, guys! Earlier I decided to alter the prices of my commissions. I'm not looking for a bunch of "You are so brave!" comments or anything, I just wanted to let you guys know why.

To be honest, the rates I was choosing to work at were NOT sustainable, especially for the amount of work I was putting into each one almost every day. To give you some perspective, my full body pieces were selling at a base price of 35 dollars. I was working on these pieces on average about 8-10 hours. Sometimes, if the background is extremely detailed, up to 15. Because of this, I was pretty much working for roughly $3.50 an hour. I know you can't exactly price artwork based on hour very easily, but like, this is a rough estimate based on the average times it took to make these pieces.

I wanted, and still want, for artwork to be accessible to as many people as possible in as many price points as possible, since art is an important method of releasing creativity, and watching your ideas come to life is absolutely magical. The fact of the matter, though, that art is not a necessity. It is a luxury. I don't mean that as in "only rich people should have art", but what I'm trying to say is that I should not under price myself because I am worried that some of the lesser off people in the community cannot afford my rates. Trust me, I know money is tight all around. That's why I even do these commissions in the first place. I am so busy working on other people's OCs most of the time that I barely have time to develop my own.

By raising my prices, I am absolutely positive that some people on my wait list will not be interested in getting a commission anymore, or will have to scale back on what they wanted. I'm very sorry for that, but please understand that I very much need to lessen my workload slightly while bringing up the profit because I am constantly overworking myself on these commissions. I do them almost every single day for most of the day and I still have to worry about if I can even pay just my phone bill each month. I'm so very sorry to those who I will be alienating with my prices, as I want to make you all beautiful artwork as well, but I really just cannot afford to work for so cheap anymore.

I know that cheap and expensive is relative, and some of you are probably like "but Honey you were overpricing your commissions before!!! How dare you raise them even more!!"

I just have to. I see what other people are pricing themselves around similar skill levels as me, and I really am falling a little behind, lately. I hope you can all understand.

To the individuals on my wait list that do not wish to be on it anymore because of my price increase, I am not upset at you, I am not judging you, I do not wish for you to feel forced to still get a commission if it isn't in your budget. PLEASE do not be afraid to send me a note or a comment telling me to remove you from the list, and I will GLADLY comply. Thank you very much, guys, for being so supportive and kind as of recently <3 It means a ton to me

You can check out the updated prices here: <da:thumb id="683490048"/>