FAQ

Frequently asked questions. Surprisingly, people do ask me questions. And sometimes they ask the same ones.

I think every artist learns from stuff they enjoy. That’s why it’s important to play games, and read books, and watch movies, and listen to music! It’s fun, it stimulates your brain, and you can learn so many things for your own art. For example, so much of my art isn’t just influenced by visuals, but more by what I imagine set to music I like (You will be displeased to discover that most if what I listen to and imagine AMVs for are 50's-80's pop, heavy metal, and dad rock.)! Reading biographies and articles about irl stuff, plus experiencing IRL stuff and having non-art hobbies, gives you a lot of fodder to analyze and process through characters and stories as well.

I also owe a lot to my teachers who informed the way I think about art and storytelling, not just how I draw.

As for more straightforward visual art influences, they're usually artists I found through their work for film, games, animation, and other media: Ayami Kojima's delicate brutality, Danny Antonucci's energetic cartooning, H.R Giger's erotic form.

Artists who I found as a babby on the internet, through their fanart, are also huge continuous influences for me: hallokatzchen, khorosho, pu-sama.

I think people always make a comparison between my stuff and tim burton or ren and stimpy, but I feel like I watched more Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Ed Edd n’ Eddy as a kid lololol. You can see Sailor Moon in the clothes, Dragon Ball in my anatomy and eyes, and EENE in the sagass pants I draw…

It depends.

Zines, stickers and art prints:

• I DIY most paper goods. I currently use a Canon IP8720, but would recommend a Canon Pixma Pro-100 because of its larger color palette. I'm aiming to upgrade to a Canon Pixma Pro-200.
• For cutting paper, I have both a guillotine and a Silhouette plotter. Zines are printed on opaque copy paper, with cardstock covers. Stickers are printed on a mix of vinyl, matte, and glossy sticker paper. I use a mix of Red River and Canon photo paper for art prints.
• Read my page on how we DIY stickers if you dare.

Charms:

• I use ZapCreatives and Vograce to print my charms, depending on which manufacturer can make what I want. Zap has a nice selection of custom color acrylics. Vograce also has a lot of other gimmicky merch options.

Dakimakura:

• I used MoeGF to print body pillows, but I can't find them anymore. Now I'm on “Guangzhou Ecai Printing”.

Everything else:

• Most artists source from Alibaba, a Chinese Ebay-like site for manufacturers. Have a look on there and shop around! For in-depth details, AAN is a good resource for people to tell you to look a the pinned posts, or tell you to message Alibaba manufacturers yourself because they worked hard for their sources so you don't get sources for free.
• Of course, this is all weird and funky in current year if you live in a country engaged in a tariff war. Too bad that China holds the manufacturing for almost everything, and many other countries depend on them because they don't have their own manufacturing infrastructure or trained workers!
• You can get books printed rather nicely and inexpensively in Japan, I've heard, but you should know Japanese for that.

Sure! I draw doodles for any tip amount. And you can commission me for something bigger.

Yeah, and I mostly learned how much I don't like school or the Art Industry ™.

I went to CSSSA after high school, and had a good time. Especially cuz the cost of room/food was less than it would be for me to live at home .

I went to animation school after that. I had a few cool teachers, and I snuck into a couple of illustration classes. I didn't learn that much about drawing from the animation classes. I found the general humanities classes (media criticism, feminism, gender studies, intersection of race) more enlightening for my creative process lmao.. Also there's a lot of racism and sexism and sexual assault and overall abuse in The Art World that people don't want to talk about because they need to e-beg for jobs.

I learned more about art by sneaking into classes outside of my major, by experiencing shit in my life, and by doing jobs. Doesn't matter if it's just a couple of craigslist gig or proper contract work. Doesn't matter if it's a free art anthology with strangers. Doing applicable things helps my brain, rather than reading and theorizing.

I do not wish to go back to school. Maybe I'd take cooking classes or pottery or something NOT drawing/work related though.

I'm sure other people have a better time at art school if they are into “networking with industry contacts” or “learning how to perform for a professional standard”. I'm kind of a no good learning disabled hooligan with oppositional defiance disorder.

A Pentel Brush Pen is the easiest fat pen for me to use. I refill the cartridges with with Noodler's, Hydrus, and PH Martins Black Star ink depending on what I can find around me.

Pentel Color Water Brushes are for a slightly different, more controlled feel.

For thin brush lines, I use a Pentel Artist Brush Sign Pen. It's like an eyeliner pen for drawing. It's pretty sick.

For controlled, non-variable thin lines, I like Ohto pens. They tips are much stronger than Microns, and can withstand my mighty hulk grip. Otherwise, for sketching I like whatever I can find on my desk. Chewed up pencils, free pens from hotels…

Primarily the default G-Pen and some brush pens for CSP lineart: Kaze Fude. Ink Pen. Tint Texture Brush.

I use a variety of brushes for textures:

• Mixergraph Free Grunge Brushes
• Retrosupply Colorlab
• True Grit Texture Supply Debaser

Shane is my wife and a pretty cool guy and a real Chinese chief. Sometimes he turns into a chubby orange cat when I wake up in the morning.

Please opt me out of all of the above, and then write me a poem about Willem Dafoe's ribcage.

Referring to me by my name is preferable. Whether you know me as scumsuck, maggie, or whatever. If you must use 3rd-person pronouns, whatever you choose will reflect on you. Take notes, I will be testing you on the pronouns you've used for me in the future.

All characters I draw are fluid in gender and sexuality.

Heck yeah! Tag me online, or email me what you make! And let me know if I can upload it to my HALL OF FAME gallery!

I can design art for tattooing purposes, and you can buy a tattoo ticket if you want one of my pre-existing pieces as a design.

I cannot ink directly on people's skin!!! I do not trust my attention deficit brain with a canvas of live human flesh.

Maybe! Read my artist statement and see if our values align. You can also just commission me if you want something specific.

I'm less likely to join strangers' fandom zines with unspecific themes.

I'm more likely to contribute time to projects with people I know, and themes I enjoy (horror, gay stuff, niche pairings).

Maybe!

If you commissioned a piece from me, feel free to use that piece as your icon, header, or so forth. Please credit me as SCUMSUCK, and link to this website or any of my social media if possible.

If you want to use my personal work for your personal icon, please credit me as above.

Do not use use commissioned work that was made for someone else. It's weird to take a photo of your neighbor's car and print it out like it was your own car.

Do not use my work as your icon on Twitch, Youtube, or any other commercialized site without asking me first. You can commission me for a personalized icon instead.

Sorry! I don't check most of my social media messages. I just post stuff and leave, cuz my brain can not handle the skinner box loop of mainstream social media.

If you e-mail me though, I check that every day. Though I may also forget to respond if it's not urgent. I have some sort of disorder that makes me attention deficit I think.

Sure. I'll write an honest review, unless you pay me a moral offset fee. I've done reviews for drawing tablets before. Shoot me an email so we can work it out.

Sure. Shoot me an email, and let me know where you'll be publishing this. And if you're doing this for homework or something.

Maybe! I'll probably say something like “cool” to you, and I always love seeing art of my characters and fav ships! I don't have good social brain though, so I probably won't be able to maintain a long conversation about your art and stories, and will likely forget to respond.

Sure why not, I respect your headcanons. You can respect that the “scout” and “spy” characters I draw are original characters with that class title. They are not related to the TF2 comics characters of “Jeremy” and whatever gayass name they gave the spy, and thus not familially related.

I do enjoy shipping packages to my clients and customers. I am also a fan of shipping services that allow me to send snail mail to my friends. But I don't really like the idea 1 day Amazon shipping becoming the default, as that make postal workers drive around in poor conditions and puts factory workers in danger. Not to mention all the fuel usage around the world makes my head spin… I would prefer to get most things locally if possible, like food and produce.

So, I am pro-shipping in concept, but I want better working conditions for everyone. And I don't personally need a hyperspecific label to let people know that I like mailing stuff to friends. Some people lose the forest for the trees in online arguments, whether they're pro or anti shipping packages!

I actually coined that term for Grandpa Mutou x Exodia The Forbidden One shipping, since it's not on many Yugioh ship lists yet. Check out whim's duel monsters ship name list for other ship names - I can't wait for Antishipping to become as popular as Puzzleshipping!

Nope. I don't really want to know. You should talk to that person yourself on my behalf, and tell them to be nicer to people!