This is a really good question! I'm largely relying on past precedent set by other artists. I don't know where the headcanons of Black Hermione or Indian Harry came from, but they so quickly became canon for me when I found fanfic. Upthehill is one of my main influences, and she brought so much diversity to the cast. Sometimes I will adopt a head canon from a fic (Theo's freckles are from a smutshot called A Slice of Pleasure) or other art. I like drawing mixed Latina Hermione because I am and she's my self insert character. It's entirely self serving. As for body shapes, I tend to change them based on the fic I'm illustrating, but some just stick with me. Draco will forever be a twink in my mind, Hermione will always be curves on curves, because they just ARE. This cast lives in my head rent free. I'm also really open to changing the design if I'm working on something specific. For example, I imagine Severus as white because it makes his story more relatable to me, but I'm illustrating a fic soon with a Turkish Severus and I'm so excited to design him with dark skin and curly hair. These characters have been around so long, I think it's fair to give them new shapes.

Good question! I read some fanfic as a teenager, but then just fell out of it. During the pandemic, I had a crush on a girl and got into fanfic to impress her (it worked!). I was about a year into graduate school for therapy, after working in mental health for about 10 years when I got into it. I work with mostly narrative therapy and Internal Family System ("parts" work), so using fanfic was a natural tool. It was something I really enjoyed, and my practice is geared towards geeks/ nerds, so it was something a lot of my clients already enjoyed too. I absolutely use fiction to work through things (it's helped me unlearn a lot of internalized bullshit) and so I decided to try it out with clients, and for some folks, it works really well! I think fanfic works specifically well because the world is already built, and you can focus on the emotions and characters without worrying too much about lore, which is what you want to focus on in therapy.

I have no standards? I consider these all as co-existing timelines in the multiverse, so no one ship is "right". I have my favorites, of course, but a well written story can convince me of just about anything. Creators are BRILLIANT and if the creator is excited about a ship or a representation, it shows, and it's easy to get invested in that energy, even if just for one story or one piece of art.

I have two prongs to this question, the philosophical and the practical. The Philosophical: I had at block for YEARS before making fan art. I had no ideas and hated anything I came up with. Everything had to /mean/ something or /say/ something and that was so much pressure, I just shut down. Fan art lifted that pressure and I started getting ideas again. It reminded me that art is fun and I can make "silly things" that "don't matter". And once I let go of the idea it had to be "meaningful", I was able to create with meaning! My politics, values, and relationships show up in my fan art all the time. So the best thing for getting stuck is just to let go. Take a break, let go of whatever you're holding to so tightly, and know that you will show up in your work just because you're you. The Practical: I have a running list of ideas that just lives on my notes app, and a huge folder of reference photos. Any time I see a photo I like, I just save it and toss it in a folder for later. I also work a lot from specific fics as gifts to the author (they give us these books for FREE??) and that takes some pressure off because it's always fun to make a gift. I like the idea of using music! I'm going to try that now.

Hi Kate! ...I have a style? Honestly, I feel like it's still evolving. Later this month is my one-year mark of making digital art, and I've learned so much in that time. I studied the work of other artists in the fandom and you can see little influences of others in my style. I just cherry picked elements I liked from others, mashed them together, and tossed myself in. And I guess that's style? I also studied traditional art (mostly renaissance and romantic painting) for years before making digital art, and that influence shows in how I think about composition and forms.

Yeah it was! I loved making that series. Guess which bodies they don't teach in art schools? And which skin tones? Shocking, I know. I used TONS of reference photos. Lots of plus size lingerie adds, but those tend to all have the same shape of plus-size body. One of my partners is a body positive boudoir photographer (shout out to Hella Positive Pin Up - check him out!) and I used some of his work. I also put out a call for folks to send me lewds in their favorite lingerie, and folks did! I was so humbled by the trust people placed in me. So some of them are professional models, some are my partner's clients, and some are really sweet followers. As for who to draw, every reference photo had some ~ Vibes ~ and I just went by feel. (That's why there's no Snape, I haven't found something with Snape vibes yet)

Yes and no? I hated it in the beginning and thought I made a huge mistake. I had the art background but didn't know how to use the program. Once I learned how to use the program, it makes so much sense and I love it. I rarely do traditional art anymore. There's absolutely a big up front cost, but for me it was worth it. Dollars per minute of entertainment, it's some of the best money I've spent. I bought an iPad, apple pencil, and Procreate and it's so user friendly. It was easy enough to learn with online tutorials and it can do more than traditional art in a lot of ways. I absolutely suggest jumping into it if you're curious!

I LOOOVE darkfic. That whole fest was born of me being real horny, making a shit post, and authors jumping on board to make some very niche smut. I was freaking out to work with SyrensGrey because I love her work. That process with different because I sent every author a few reference photos and they picked a favorite, then we decided what was happening and how to put it together. It was a lot more collaborative and everyone was just vibing on dark horny energy. I had so much fun. 10/10 will do again.

Harry. 'Cause I have a big 'ol crush on him and it SHOWS. I try really hard to draw them with the same facial features each time. I've been really focused on having a standard character design so it reads as the same person each time. Then I can focus on drawing out different aspects of them using composition, pose, lighting, clothing, setting, etc. I love seeing these characters take on different lives in fic while still being recognizably themselves. I draw A LOT of Hermione, so she was the first to get a standard look. That said, if someone requests a specific fan cast, I will draw that version (i.e. I'm working on a Turkish Snape right now and love it). I'm still working on the designs for everyone. Snape is the hardest. He's kicking my ass. But hopefully I figure him out soon!

Yes! Not in a bad way, but it IS a different process. I'm really careful to get it exactly how the client wants and include as many details as possible. I will go back and forth with the person for about 5-7 drafts before the finished product. You don't have to do that! I just like working super collaboratively. I still love it and it still has it's shine, though it IS sometimes hard to find motivation if i'm not super excited about the project. I sometimes will learn a new skill or get a new fancy brush for a commission piece as a way of keeping myself motivated (that "new toy!" shine works on me). Give it a shot! If you hate it, you can close commissions. Currently, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with them, so I'm being super picky on which ones I take, and I'm sure I will feel more open in a bit after a break. You can always change your boundaries. (I'm also very privileged in that this isn't my full time job and I don't rely on the income. This gets to be disposable income that mostly goes to my handmade jewelry obsession and various activist organizations. That would absolutely change the decision making for me, and I don't feel it's fair to give this answer with acknowledging my significant privilege here).

Yes! I did Harry, Remus, Sirius, Kingsly, Draco, Neville, Ron and Viktor for the thicc thighs collection. It is SO HARD to find references of plus size men. Significantly harder than finding plus size women. (and I've found no plus size enbys. working on it...) I really want to do more and show more fat male bodies as beautiful. The trick is just finding references. Most came from a magazine for bears, which was cool.

Well my mom just asked me how to join this AMA so there that. Thank you for noticing the vulnerability! That's so meaningful. I very rarely share it with my IRL friends (though a bunch of them found it because the google overlords don't believe in privacy?). Honestly I'm more nervous about the fact that it's Harry Potter art than that it's quite a bit of kinky gay smut. All my friends are Queer or love someone who is, and if someone isn't involved in the fandom to see the radical reclamation that happens in transformative fan works, it would be easy to assume I (even passively) support JKR and I never want to give that impression or make someone feel unsafe around me. So I'm careful about what I share with friends and family, but overall they've been pretty supportive.

Good question! Cause I have no idea. I got into fic to impress a girl. We started with HP but I also read Star Trek and I'm into all sorts of fandoms (ATLA, LOTR, The Magicians, Doctor Who). I think the size and vibrancy of the community helped a lot. I feel deeply uncomfortable drawing actors without their consent. There isn't a big line for me between making a deep fake and drawing Emma Watson's head on some smut. But the fandom did so much work reclaiming these characters from the movie actors that they are recognizable as these alternate versions. It's also just a huge fandom and there's a bananas amount of content. There's nothing too specific about HP (and in fact, I'm wary of making HP content because of the TERF), it was more a right time, right place, right interest kind of magic.

I teared up a little reading this. THANK YOU. This means so much. (I used to work at a Deaf school and I just imagine Deaf and Mute wixen as being seen as super powerful because they would all use wordless magic.) I loathe that JKR wrote us out of her world. Of COURSE Disabled wixen exist and kick ass and find ways to navigate the world. I will claw my disabled ass into any world I damn well choose. We have a place there too.

There are whole academic journals dedicated to fandom if you have access to a university library. I could also talk about this forever. Read up on Narrative Therapy and that'll be a good primer. The main idea is that we can use fiction to re-parent ourselves. Trauma is not having the resources (by no fault of our own, you can't prepare for trauma) to face whatever horror came our way. We often didn't get the guardian we needed, but we can write and read that guardian as a way to re-parent our wounded inner child. If you're not able to give yourself credit for what you survived, that's okay, but what would Hermione have to say? Molly? McGonagall? Can you feel righteous anger though McGonagall or Harry? It's all you, it's all your own wisdom, the character is just the mouthpiece. Trauma also leaves us with so much anger and depression that feels inappropriate in life, and the events in fiction are so big and dramatic (ie dark fic) that those emotions now feel like appropriate reactions, and we can explore our depths of emotion in a safe, contained space. So it lets us come at the trauma sideways, which makes it accessible, see it through a new lens, and rewrite the story.

Also, trauma doesn't have to be TRAUMA. Growing up in a capitalist, racist, white supremacist, fatphobic, ableist, cisheteronormative society IS traumatic. None of us escape that shit. We all have wounds to heal from it.

Hello! I cringe pretty hard looking back at some of my old work. It's all weirdly thin bodies and I had no idea how to make anything digitally. There's no real light. I remember being so proud of some pieces and now I'm just like... yikes. But that's how any skill goes. Figuring out how to use the medium was huge. I've only scratched the surface of blending modes but they've already added so much. Also, studying the work of other artists! Grabbing elements I like, studying how similar styles work. Art can't be made in a vacuum. It's cliché, but I'm motivated by the community. It's one reason I love fan art over traditional art. I LOVE making gifts. If I read a fic I love, I want to illustrate something as a "thanks" because an author just yeeted an entire novel into the world /for free/. I have a huge list to get through, so I am rarely out of ideas, and sometimes people send me plunnies. I'm also just a really Opinionated person and apparently have a lot to say. So I say it with this.

Digital all the way! I learned on charcoals and oils, but rarely touch them now. I also really love making paper sculptures when I feel like sinking hours and hours into a project.

Great questions! For color palettes I use a lot of the premade ones on pinterest or from colorpalettecinema on IG. They're so useful. Even if I don't use the exact color, they give me a starting point and help me pick a mood. I also use A LOT of Gryffindor red and Slytherin green, so I usually build a color palette around whatever meaningful color is in the piece. Sometimes I will rock a piece in one shot and just puke it out, sometimes it sits in my wips for months. I have a Sevmione based on a SenLinYu piece that's been taunting me since April. I usually get stuck on some bit of technique in the line art. That's always the longest stage. Once I'm coloring, it's smooth sailing. The line art will see a few versions. Since I work from references, it can depend a lot on how much I'm relying on the reference and its quality.