Another week and another fantastic question. I’m still seeking questions to keep this series going a little longer so if you have something you want to know, be sure to fill in the simple survey below and I will definitely get to it.
Question: Perhaps someone asked this at one point, but how did you decide on your avatar? Did you draw it yourself, and does that reflect in any way what you look like? From Moyatori
I think I’ve mentioned it somewhere before on my blog, but my avatar is just kind of there. Honestly, I didn’t expect my blog to last very long so I didn’t put a lot of thought into it when I started. I’d previously been trying to discuss anime with people in the Crunchyroll forums (with incredibly limited success) but one day someone started a thread for people to create an anime version of themselves and post it. I don’t even remember what I used to create the avatar but she’s designed to look like a cuter version (much, much, much cuter version) of me when I was in my teens.
The colour of the hair and clothing is pretty accurate but the eye colour is way too bright as mine are closer to blue-grey or blue-green and pretty pale. The chin is too pointy and the nose is well just totally wrong. I like the accessories she’s wearing in her hair and her necklace because they kind of fit with what I was going for as a teen, though they are a little bit dated for me nowadays.
I actually really liked how it turned out though as I’ve thought more and more about making my blog a full time thing, I’ve started to think I need something designed specifically for the blog (if for no other reason other than not being sure about whether or not I’m supposed to be using that image the way I do). And that is why I set up the account with Ko-Fi as my goal with that is to have enough to commission some art that is made for the purpose of the blog.
I think if I ever do reach the goal and look at getting an avatar made specifically for the blog, I’d probably like her to look a little bit older (I am in my thirties after-all) and while the book is a cute prop, it really doesn’t have anything to do with being an anime blog. There’s also a specific style pendant I’d love to have included as I wear it almost continuously.
On that note, if you are or happen to know someone who is looking for an art commission, I’d love it if you could pass their name along and some samples of work because it is something I really would like my banner, logo, and profile pic to all kind of look like they were designed purposefully and not just kind of thrown together. While I’m not at a point where I can pay for this yet, I’m working on it so research is always good.
This was a great question and as always I’d love to know about my readers as well. So, how did you decide on your avatars?
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
Consider supporting the blog by:
Or use one of my affiliate product links:
I was kinda wondering this as well. Looks like I got my answer. lol
My old avatar was basically something inspired by the Shin Megami Tensei, and Persona series. My old avatar was made before much of Persona 5 was known, and someone did a drawing of how they imagined the main character to look like. I liked it enough to contact the artist to see if I could hire him, but he was busy with other stuff. He also told me it’s cool for me to use.
I end up using it for a few years, and I asked an artist if they could update my avatar. They didn’t get back to me in months, and I went back to the original artist to ask him if he could update it for me. Same thing with no response. One day, I saw Studio Yuraki who I follow on Twitter announcing they were open for commissions. I hit them up, they accept, and get it done in about a week despite my terrible direction. It turned out better than I expected.
Studio Yuraki is pretty pricey, but if you’re interested in checking their stuff here’s their Twitter: https://twitter.com/StudioYuraki
Thank you.
Your avatar looks like it was made through the Rinmaru Games avatar creator. That’s what I always thought. The style’s incredibly similar.
As for commissions, if you look up #commissions on Twitter, you can find a collection of people taking commissions and showing off artwork that they’ve done recently, so it’s a start for looking for that specific style you want your possible new avatar to have. Just be wary that you’ll find lots of “interesting” results in the meantime.
Finding interesting results is always a part of searching.
Mine is simply a clipart figure from when I got my first PC way back in …mumble mumble… and used it in my first work in my first graphics package (serif plus 5.0 I think).
Then a few years later when I set up my first website I thought it would make a cool avatar to represent “MIB” and he became my figurehead and it has stuck ever since.
Boring story but you did ask… 😛
That was good to find out. I always liked your avatar and it is cool that you’ve stuck with it for so long.
Thanks! I consider it part of my online identity now, so you’ll see it on Twitter, my website, Vimeo, Facebook etc. 🙂
An interesting story!
Mine is from Norn9.
Sorry for short comment, but I keep getting an error when submitting.
That’s really annoying when it happens because you’ve already spent time thinking about what you want to say and then it won’t post.
Cool.
I am going to officially express my doubts about the avatar being cuter than the reality, because somehow girls always think they are less cute than they actually are (while guys think they are much more cute than they actually are, we are a weird species like that). 😉
I’ve always been a bit of an imp, so I just googled images for smiley devil faces or something like that and picked one. 😛
That’s a fair enough way to pick an image.
I see!! I was quite curious about your avatar so I’m glad you answered that question. ^^
I really am sure I mentioned it at some point before on my blog but it must have been a fair while ago. Looking back I couldn’t find a post about it, so it probably was good that this question came up.
Yay, thanks for answering my question! I love your avatar. There’s a nice Vampire-esque vibe (totally meant as a good thing). It also makes you and spookyredhead look a lot like sisters, haha.
My own avatar was something I drew as a part of a Soul Eater button set I was selling with friends at cons. I wonder how many people can even recognize that it’s Medusa when pulled apart from the set?
I didn’t recognise Medusa but now that you’ve said it, I can see it.
There is a bit of a vampire-esque vibe going and my teenage self was way too heavily into Buffy among other things (loved Drusilla’s look). So I think the avatar does reflect the look I was aiming for back when.
The blue images (there was a dark blue one for the Spellbook in the past, as well as my current light blue avatar) were just things I whipped up in a picture editing program with a bunch of visual effects. You have to look closer for what the visual effects are specifically, but there are stars with motion blurs on the light blue one and the odd shape in both is a Mandelbrot fractal.
I did have an anime-esque image of myself (well, the persona which kind of looks like me) when I was renovating the Spellbook a bit back, but the dimensions didn’t work with what WordPress wanted and resizing it made it look awkward…luckily, I did draw a picture of a book to use in case there was something that didn’t work out. That’s the one you see for the Spellbook logo and banner, albeit with some editing to make it look better.
I always wondered what your avatar was. Thanks for sharing.
See, I didn’t knwo that about your avatar, so that was an interesting read. As to me … it’s a logo I designed to brand a few different projects with, simple as that.
Have you ever considered changing it or are you sticking with the logo?
For now i’m sticking with it. If I get an idea for a new one I may. As it is, I like the simplicity though.
This was really a great question, and actually something I wondered about myself (no idea why I didn’t ask this before lol😂😂) I had always though it might have been a character from an anime series that I had not yet seen😊 It turned out really cool though, that’s for sure!
Well, I don’t really have an Avatar, just a picture of myself, although in the alternative picture you can see a painting for Raistlin himself 😊. I have pretty much zero technical expertise, so I’m pretty happy that I have been able to figure out how to make my blog work but I would love to one day learn how I can make my blog look nicer. But, that’s in the future 😊
I really didn’t put a lot of thought into it when I started the blog. As I said, I wasn’t thinking I was going to get all that into it or that the blog was going to last very long so I really just kind of scrolled through my images and remembered I’d made this one so used it. Still, I think that particular avatar has done a good job over the last couple of years and I’m very used to it now.