a-flyleaf

alternatively titled: TOP 3 REASONS WHY THIS HERMIT ISN’T A #/MAINSTREAM WEBNERD (AND IS CONVINCED THAT’S A GOOD THING)

I always feel a little weird telling people I don’t have a/n $insertPopularPlatformHere account, but I wish that wasn’t so unusual. Here’s an unsourced spontaneous thing about why.

It’s <2,500 words of rambling about my own projects and the status thereof, ft. tangentially-relevant website and medium meta. I have posted scarcely about my previous project for a reason, which is outlined there, and so you might have no idea what I’m talking about for half of it. To skip to the part concerning the “unmoored randos” I’ve been drawing all year, here’s a nifty subheader.

Have an excerpt. (I would put it in a blockquote except dA’s blockquote styling makes it huge, thanks Eclipse /s; bullets must suffice for proper indentation instead.)

• The idea first spawned in November 2020, as one of a couple little story-starters I entertained for like a day and then moved past—and then around January, in typing up those notes for personal archival, I thought, this idea kinda slaps tho ngl.

• So the two characters at the crux got designs. New characters spawned to mirror them. And, while I am normally reluctant to publicize anything story-related because ~spoilers~ or whatever, I didn’t care about that this round because I wasn’t thinking it was going to become A Thing™. Figured I’d just play around with the idea some more, inevitably lose interest, fun was had call it a day.

• Well, it’s December 2021, and I’ve told a non-small amount of people about the story, all with the assumption it would, in fact, become A Thing™. So, I guess now it’s going to become A Thing??

. . . I need to use my own dang website more often /o\

-scrawling furiously on a chalkboard- I will not start using deviantART like social media, I will not start using deviantART like social media, I will not

(Genuinely, the latest couple updates have been an anomaly; we will resume the usual radio-silence-sans-actual-deviation-uploads soon, probably.)

So first things first, HUGE shout-out to the kind person who got me a core membership today I have thus been enabled to do the one and only thing I’d ever want to do with a core membership*: change my gosh dang username.

*Once upon a time I would have also wanted to use core for like, journal skins and polls, except now everyone can do the latter and I don’t think the former is really a Thing anymore, but I digress.

It is done. The days of NightAuctor are no more. I have now turned into one of the Cool Kidz™ who uses a consistent handle across most (active, anyway) platforms. You are still totally free to call me whatever the heck you want, though.

Self-gratuitous rambling below:

I’m writing this as a journal because the timing is, coincidentally, fitting enough; I haven’t been this active on dA for literal years. And while I don’t care about self-promotion, people keep finding my stuff one way or another somehow anyway, and that’s pretty cool. So, additional shout-out to my newest watchers! There is no consistency or god or master here, thanks for stopping by 👋

On that note, a little ~historical context~: I’ve been using a-flyleaf sinnnce… wow, apparently 2016?? Over five goddamn years now, stop it, I feel old. Before that (and still today to an extent, depending where I am), one of the closest things I had to a consistent username was Nightpath—and yes, that is a warrior cat name. That was not a phase in which I drew digitally a lot, never mind posting it, but it was a very strong phase that happened nonetheless. <s>guess my age lol</s> So that’s half my old username.

The other half is from Slade Auctor, a coyote RP character I’ve had since 2011 (you might recognize him as my previous icon). He was more or less a self-insert, and while I forget where I got Slade from, auctor is Latin for “writer” and I’ll give you two guesses what his schtick was (in theory, anyway; TFW no thumbs).

Night + Auctor = NightAuctor. Solid. And the stylized little “N/A” makes for a very nifty signature, which I’m gonna keep using. I probably could’ve kept that username too, really, since if I have anything like a “personal brand” it’s Being Slapdash On Purpose. But the opportunity is here on a diamond platter, and automatic redirects are a blessing, so… hello! Same weirdo, different name.

And for the record, any resemblance to a Christian rock band is entirely unintentional. I Just Thought The Word Was Neat. There’s deeper lore to the rest of it, but I’ll spare ya ;V

As a little thanks for reading this far, I’ll turn the mic over to you (in an effort to make this a smidge less yelling-to-the-void-y and more interaction-initiation-y, and because this stuff genuinely fascinates me*): Where’d you get your username from? Is it consistent across sites, and how long have you been using it?

*ok I guess I’m not 100% done yet: It’s always cool to me how internet names (or lack thereof) come about and why, especially if they change over time. Because while it could very well be an inside joke or middle school name that Stuck, and anonymity online is a double-edged sword (to say the least), the internet is one of the few places where your name is really, wholly yours.

I just think that’s something pretty special.

Title; I’m aaaaaaalmost done with semester work and have been wanting to take random little art requests for a while, throw ’em at me 👀 OCs, fanart, human, creacher, serious, silly, you name it*; quality-wise, expect a scribbly colored sketch like one of my roundup drawings (650x500), maybe bigger/cleaner if I get carried away with it.

You can totally just throw me a reference with no further info, but if you want a prompt idea, here’s a few I stole from tungler dot hellsite:

• make me choose between two things

• terrible horrible no good very bad Real Authentique MSPaint quality

• two characters that have to be interacting somehow; optionally, a word about what they might be doing

• pokémon fusions (or non-pokémon fusions??)

• outfit and/or palette swaps

• attempt at copying your art style

• truth or draw: Send me a question and an art request. If I can’t answer the question I have to draw the thing. (I might draw the thing regardless.)

• one of those expression or palette or outfit or pose or xyz-whatever-thign memes that floats around ig

*Obligatory disclaimer that I reserve the right to interpret your request however I want, or flat-out not do it. [EDIT:] This is supposed to be a casual thing, not a free commission station, and I will decline overly-detailed requests. Have fun, be chill :V

Depending on a lot of little factors subject entirely to my whim, resulting doodles may be uploaded individually or in a sketchdump or something; I’ll reply to your comment with a sta.sh link, at least. Open indefinitely or until whenever I feel like doing something else.

Have at it~

No longer being updated as of September 28, 2022. Check the offsite version!

Because my gallery is sorted mainly by year, so here’s some actual categorization~

Tags ordered alphabetically within groupings.

• BY SUBJECT

• recurring stories

• disastercrew: the disaster duo, two of my oldest human characters (since ~2012), plus other people who spawned when I revisited their story in 2018

• thefirebirdeffect/tfe: nuzlocke-inspired pokémon comic, active 2016–17

• 404: experimental web-based narrative, launched 2020 (currently in limbo)

• unmooredrandos: catch-all tag for You’re gonna be the death of me, a story that I’ve been playing with/developing since early 2021; major site art tagged with the acronym

• other dudes

• sladeauctor: RP character from 2011

• zero: former adoptable/closed species from 2012

• thosetwoguys: characters who were originally from TFE

• sawface: weirdass monster, first drawn c. 2016

• hellrabbit: creature that spawned as part of the #/unmooredrandos story, but appears elsewhere sometimes

• fanart: ena, flightrising, pokemon, miscfanart

• other: bodyhorror, canidae, creatures (miscellaneous monsters and non-FR dragons), lineup (character height things), rpstuff

• BY VISUALS (mediums & choice styles; definitely NOT comprehensive)*

• 3d

• animation

• bw (more or less; sketches not included)

• comic (TFE pages not included)

• edit

• lineless (flat/not painted)

• mspaint

• neon

• notedump (visual guide-type things)

• painterly (blended/not flat, no lineart or crisp edges)

• pixelart

• (fake) screenshot

• scribbly (on purpose, not just sketches)

• sketchdump (not including roundups; see below)

• writing (warning: Ancient)

• OTHER

• forxyz (gifts, commissions, trades)

• icon (art that I’ve used as my dA icon over the years, because why not. (forgot what the very first one was, though…))

• redraw (of my own stuff, both old and new versions)

• roundup (annual & monthly compilations)*

• template (memes, lineart)

• video (animations & timelapses)

• website (art featured somewhere on my site)

• tumblrlink: imagine how is break teh link (mostly here as a self-reminder to update descriptions)

• tags that I don’t anticipate using again: livestreamera, stevenuniverse, cringetober

Why this?

Essentially: I’ve tried sorting my gallery by subject or even style before, but 1) I don’t like gallery repeats for some reason, 2) stuff overlaps a lot, and 3) if I wanted to change the criteria, moving everything was a pain. When dA first introduced tags I think I used them, but then a layout change hid them and somewhere in the interim I just cleared everything?? Idek, man.

In any case, the by-year system is most objective—but it makes finding anything specific a pain in the ass instead. Since I started being more active on dA again in 2021 (and tags seem here to stay), figured I’d do this ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

*A note on roundups

Compilations encompass A Lot Of Stuff. Sometimes I add specific tags (either of note or that I happened to remember pop up somewhere); usually I don’t. Until I make up my mind here, these deviations will come up sporadically in other tags.

Last updated 2022-09-21: fixed #/icon link (has been #/untagged for the longest time, whoops)

– 2022-09-20: added #/3d, rephrased #/website description (“art for webpages” → “art featured somewhere on my site”)

– 2022-05-25: condensed #/disasterduo + #/disasterduoandpals into #/disastercrew

– 2022-03-27: updated #/unmooredrandos tag description

– 2021-02-12: rewrote & reshuffled stuff, cleared this changelog; added new tags #/painterly #/scribbly #/video

– [previous state of thing in drafts; formatting got fucked up but what can ya do ¯\_( :V )_/¯]