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The Joy of GMing - with Special Guest Eren Angiolini!
40 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to the sister-series to Anywhere But Now— our Doctor Who Actual Play Podcast! Our special guest today is Doctor Who & Critical Role colorist, Eren Angiolini!
Join us for a wonderful chat about their rise through illustrating from humble days on DeviantArt to working with some of the biggest names in today's comics! Hear some dynamite tips about pursuing a career in freelancing-- illustrating or writing-- from an incredible talent!
We’ll cover some making-of and behind the scenes tidbits of our mods as well, so do stick around, with host Casey Jones!
Learn more at our Discord! Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment, and follow us on BluSky and Twitter for more updates. Don’t forget to send your questions & fan art to [email protected]!
Music by Tabletop Audio
Theme by RJ Pirchinello
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Transcript
Introduction and Series Overview
00:00:35
Speaker
Whether you're at a game table in your comfiest chair reading a book or listening at home, there's nothing like a great adventure story.
00:00:43
Speaker
But they don't happen by accident. Welcome to the joy of GMing, a special interview series on the craft of great gaming. There's just something magic about sitting down to a good table with great friends, isn't there? If you're a lifelong gamer or a newbie rolling up your first character sheet,
00:01:01
Speaker
If you're a DM or a GM or just can't get enough tabletop talk in your day, this is the show for you. Each episode will bring you amazing guest speakers to talk about writing games and running them, building fantastic worlds and compelling story arcs and oh so useful tricks of the trade.
00:01:21
Speaker
Here's some amazing stories, get inspired for your next game, and join us for an hour and a half or so of lively conversation. This sister series to Anywhere But Now, our Doctor Who actual play podcast, will be released between mods or episodes with our ongoing serialized show. We cover some making of and behind the scenes tidbits of our latest mod as well, so do stick around.
Meet Casey Jones and Aaron Angelini
00:01:46
Speaker
I'm Casey Jones.
00:01:48
Speaker
Over the last dozen years, I've written and produced screenplays, children's animation for TV and film, graphic novels, stage plays, murder mysteries, and audio adventures. I've also been writing and running tabletop games for over 10 years. Join me as we dive deep into tabletop with experts in the field. Experts like our special guest today, Aaron Angelini,
00:02:13
Speaker
Hello. Did I get that right? Hello. Yes, you did. I just realized sometimes I try and warn people about pronunciations and things before. Oh, I forgot to send them. I forgot to phonetically check it out first. You were absolutely perfect. Spot on. Yes.
00:02:30
Speaker
Magnificent. They are a professional comic colorist for such productions as Critical Role, Justice League, and Doctor Who, and a Crit Awards-nominated TTRPG illustrator. They're very well known for their fantasy character art recently collected in a system agnostic deck of TTRPG characters entitled The Arcane Compendium.
00:02:53
Speaker
listeners, I have been looking forward to this. Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today.
Aaron's Creative Background
00:03:00
Speaker
It's a pleasure being here. This is this is very exciting. Happy to be here. It's a pleasure talking to you. You have worked on some truly incredible titles as a colorist, as an illustrator. And I have to say your work in the Titan run of Doctor Who was especially was especially stunning. I may be biased as a fan.
00:03:20
Speaker
Can you tell our listeners how you got started in illustration and coloring in the first place?
00:03:26
Speaker
yes so first of all thank you very much for for your kind words i appreciate that well it's a it's a long journey i have always been as many of us we're passionate about creative endeavors and things like that i've always been in love with drawing and sketching and since i was a kid i grew up in a very uh creative family both my parents are creatives as well on other paints and my
00:03:56
Speaker
My father has done several types of miniature sculpting and painting and like ships and bottles and planes and trains and models. And I grew up in a house full of art books and comics. So it was a very stimulating environment from that point of view. And even if throughout my school,
00:04:20
Speaker
career and education, I've always done studied languages. But I've always kept art as a big passion on the side. I didn't think it would end up being my job, but then it did through a series of very fun and happy coincidences. It often is the case.
Essential Traits for Freelancers
00:04:42
Speaker
That could not be more true. Coincidence and timing have been such key factors
00:04:50
Speaker
in just being in the right place, in the right time, for the right opportunity. Absolutely. Yeah, it was a big passion on the side. I would always draw during classes and draw at home. Funny enough, when I was younger, colouring was my favourite thing. I loved drawing more than colouring.
00:05:10
Speaker
But then throughout the, like at the end of high school and towards the beginning of university I started doing a few online commissions here and there at the good old deviantart when that was still a big point of reference for the art community. And then I met people and started collaborating with them, coloring their line art just for fun. Just like, oh, I like your drawing. Can I color it just because I like it?
00:05:36
Speaker
and that became more and more a thing that I like doing and so there were more and more opportunities to do a few commissions here and there and then collaborate with people coloring their work and I started working in particular with a friend he would
00:05:53
Speaker
draw but I wasn't too keen on coloring his stuff and I was very happy to color his stuff for him and we got a few little gigs here in the coloring for TTRPG manuals we worked for evil hat and also green Ronin we did like a few
00:06:12
Speaker
sporadic works like here and there for them and then we got offered a small job for Titan Comics for like a short comic for Terminator for a limited edition
00:06:24
Speaker
DVD release or something like that and after that yeah but that was that was a fun one it was my first like published story I had done a few coloring gigs but like literally a couple pages here literally a couple pages there to fill in for people who maybe were late and couldn't finish their deadlines and then comic it had a comics like our work and they offered us Warhammer 40k so that was my first
00:06:50
Speaker
Long-term series it was 12 issues and after that it was dr. Who time so and I haven't stopped since Amazing amazing. How did you how did you guys get the attention of Titan comics? Was that did you have? Representation by that point was there someone over at Titan that just clicked with your work and
00:07:10
Speaker
So that was the person that I was working with because he had already worked with them a couple of times. And I think a very talented comic artist and Inka, I think he had met some of the editors at a convention and then they had kept in contact. So every once in a while he would reach out and send you stuff. Beautiful. Yeah, so he had done a small series for them
00:07:36
Speaker
And I think probably a few months after he had finished that, they offered him this Terminator short story. So that's how I got in contact with Tylen for the first time. And then after that, it was all me. They liked working with me and I liked working with them.
00:07:57
Speaker
I did some work on Shades of Magic with them and then Doctor Who. So that was great. Fantastic. Yeah, no. As an artist, as an independent artist, freelancing a good chunk of the time, maybe your experience has been similar because on the other side of the page, the writing side of the page, I have tried my absolute best to stick to the trifecta of traits of a freelancer
00:08:26
Speaker
to be easy to work with, to hand in your work in on time, and for the work to be good. If you manage two of those three facets, according to Neil Gaiman, you will keep working. But if you manage to do all three successfully and consistently, then the work you find will come back for more.
00:08:48
Speaker
and I have found that to be my experience I hope you have found it as well I agree it is the probably the number one uh feedback or like tip that I give to people who ask me how do you make it into comics or how do you make it in you know being a freelance illustrator
00:09:05
Speaker
And that's the same thing that I tell you, that there's three things. You have to be good, you have to be fast, or you have to be nice. You need to have at least two of those. If you don't, you might have to try again. And I think that being nice is...
00:09:23
Speaker
probably one of the most important and by being nice I mean just like being nice to work with not just cutesy and adorable it's just like make make sure that people know that working with you is a good experience and I agree with you it works it works like a charm it's it's it's a good policy to have try and like strive towards at least two possibly three because then people will be happy to work with you and I will keep coming
00:09:51
Speaker
So I confirm that I agree and confirm the theory. The numbers have been verified. And when we say easy to work with, we don't mean like a pushover or just like, I brought cookies to the planning meeting. Although cookies are wonderful. They're a wonderful thing, not a wonderful
Collaboration in Comics
00:10:09
Speaker
thing to bring impromptu without warning. But by easy to work with, we're talking about someone who can roll with the notes, who doesn't take it personally,
00:10:18
Speaker
who doesn't internalize, oh, they think I'm a bad artist. They think I'm a bad writer. No, they want the product, the project, the book, the comic, the illustrated masterpiece. They want it to be the best it can. And if they didn't want to work with you, believe us, they wouldn't be working with you.
00:10:36
Speaker
but if you can say oh yeah sure no i can tweak that or no absolutely those notes make a lot of sense and then take them with a grain of salt and work on them and bring them back with what they asked for that is what i mean when i say easy to work
00:10:51
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And also like replying to emails, don't be, you know, if you're on a project, you're on a project. And even if sometimes I work with people who might not be the best at that, it's not an excuse for me to not be available or communicative. And as you were saying, it's not being a pushover. If you have needs, express those needs, politely, respectfully have a conversation. But, you know,
00:11:19
Speaker
It's an industry in which, unfortunately, there's still a lot of very low rates and very rushed deadlines. So talking about things is the best way to make sure that things run smoothly and making sure that your editors, your publishers, your collaborators, your teammates
00:11:38
Speaker
are aware of what you need and preferably at the start of the project and on the halfway through and just it's just easier for everyone if people on the team are aware of what's happening and if you have oh today this happened I'm not feeling great so a couple days I need a couple days off for like please I need this reference and it's this other thing it's just like it's it's teamwork it's very much
00:12:04
Speaker
even in freelancing, but especially when it's about comics and even teaching RPGs a lot. In any stage of creation, when you are not just yourself, any time you're working with someone else, it has to be a shared experience because that's the way that the burden is going to be less heavy on your shoulders and on everyone else's shoulders. I could not agree more. That was beautifully put, Erin. Thank you.
00:12:30
Speaker
We talk a lot on Anywhere But Now and also on this show about collaborative storytelling. And granted at a tabletop, it is going to be largely verbal with visual aids and characters that the players are providing.
00:12:45
Speaker
But through personal experience, I can say that writing a comic or a graphic novel and producing it with a team is also collaborative storytelling. And just like you're saying, it requires listening. It requires feedback from the different people involved as you go and as it unfolds. And speaking from experience, having seen something go from an idea to a script,
00:13:14
Speaker
to rough pencils, to inked pencils, to colored pages. It feels like something is coming to life, you know? I agree, absolutely.
00:13:23
Speaker
And that only happens with communication, because there's a reason they're called pencils and not first draft or perfect pages. Like, if the costume doesn't quite sing for you, or the perspective is a little wonky, or sometimes even the body proportions of a character, like, yeah, no, that doesn't quite ring for me. Can we adjust that for that character?
00:13:47
Speaker
And being part of a project like that means you get to say those things. And I think it's fair to say that there's like a hierarchy and a chain of command and all that, but anyone in that group has the right and the ability to say, can I get some additional
00:14:05
Speaker
notes. Can I get some additional details here? Do you have specifics? Like, is there a certain tint of the color that's not working for you? And if so, why? Collaboration. Working together on a piece is like putting a symphony together one musical group at a time. You start with the brass and then the percussion comes in and then the strings start getting involved and the reeds fill in the back and it's just wonderful stuff.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I'm a big advocate of being very vocal about things, and it's why generally, at the beginning of a project, I'm going to try and... This doesn't happen often in comics, especially when you're working on mostly comics. Sometimes you don't get the whole team in an email group, but I always try and see if I'm not in contact with either the writer or the penciller,
00:14:58
Speaker
I will try and ask the editor if the other people on the group have any requests for style or like I recently coloured a Batman story, well it was not necessarily a Batman story, it was a DC story and the Bensler wanted kind of like a Batman
00:15:17
Speaker
cartoon vibe with the red sky and the blues and things like that. And so that was very interesting for me because if he hadn't told me, oh, I want it just to look like like Gotham in the Batman cartoon, I would have never probably gone for that.
00:15:32
Speaker
look, but having that information from the beginning, made sure that I could deliver my vision and his vision together at the first try and not having to, you know, color three pages and then go, Oh, but you know, actually I wanted to select the other way. And then it's, you know, that's hours of my work that go out the window. It's not the best. Yeah. Especially again, when there's deadlines and things and stuff needs to be finished by a certain date and all that. So absolutely agree.
00:16:02
Speaker
Being able to ask specifically for what you want with an artistic team, like saying, I want the color palette from Batman the Animated Series, or I want this to look like an Alex Ross painting, or I'm going for something really crisp and vibrant and sharp that doesn't look like Frank Miller tried to get the coloring done.
00:16:23
Speaker
By asking for what you want from a team that has agreed to work with you, you can get the kind of enthusiastic, energetic cooperation from your team, even if, as you say, not all the pieces are connected to each other, that you may not have any interactions as the colorist with the penciler. And that's fine, you know, because those pieces are
00:16:46
Speaker
separated by a step, which is the inking, which may or may not be taken over by a third party or a fourth. I did want to ask you, Aaron, what has it been like for you personally working on some of the biggest names in tabletop and sci-fi comics?
Major Titles and Career Journey
00:17:02
Speaker
Because you've worked on Warhammer, you've worked on Critical Role, you've worked
00:17:06
Speaker
on DC Pride and a personal favorite of mine, Doctor Who. What has that been like for you? What has it felt like to be providing such vibrant color to such recognizable name entities that are like part of the fictional tapestry? It's exciting. I'm not going to hide that. Every time that I get an opportunity to work on
00:17:31
Speaker
any of these titles and like new titles. It's always, oh wow, I get to do this. This is my job. It's a great feeling. I remember when the first Warhammer thing came up and in my high school university years I played Warhammer. I was very familiar with it. It was a very big thing. It was like, wow, okay, this is not only my first
00:17:58
Speaker
series, actual series, but it's a Warhammer one. And of course, there's always on the other side, whatever you're working with, when there is a big IP in the middle, there's always fans that are very vocal or things that are very strictly canon and things that are strictly non-canon.
00:18:17
Speaker
It's a big responsibility to be the one bringing some of those stories and some of those characters to life. But it's always been an extremely positive and exciting experience. Some of these things, working with DC has been an unexpected surprise. I've always, in the world of comics, it's very often that you hear someone who wants to work in comics and they want to
00:18:45
Speaker
work with the big two, you know, that's kind of like, Oh, I want to draw Thor. I want to do Iron Man. I want to do Catwoman. There is always kind of like you go into comics and the biggest goal is always working with Marvel and DC. But like when you get into it, when you get into it, you also discover a lot of other realities in like either universes and galaxies that are also extremely exciting.
00:19:10
Speaker
be like, there is not just the Avengers, there is a lot more. But I remember when I was when I was getting into comics, and I've been doing this more or less about seven years now, professionally. And I remember, it was kind of like a lot of talk of like, you could go to conventions and Marvel editors were at the US conventions very rarely in Europe, but mostly
00:19:36
Speaker
if you went to New York Comic Con or San Diego or other conventions in the US, you could talk to an actual Marvel editor who existed as a real person and you could have feedback and there was this idea, this dream that you can get into there because there was a person somewhere who was available to talk to you. But there's no DC editors at conventions. DC doesn't do
00:19:59
Speaker
portfolio reviews or like things like that at conventions so they always had this idea that to work at DC I first had to work at Marvel or kind of like the well because you get into DC if you're invited because you're you're a big name like you're someone or you know it's that's very much like that you need to be extremely famous and then you get to work with DC
00:20:24
Speaker
And what actually happened was that I, through, again, happy coincidences, crazy random coincidences, I worked with some people that I met through DeviantArt, who were looking for a colorist for a project. And I had submitted my work that was very early in my colorist days, and they did not choose me for that project. But then, like, literally a year later, they reach out to me again and they say, hey, that was not the fit for that one.
00:20:52
Speaker
But we have a new project and we think your stuff might be good for that. And I did some tests for them and it turned out to be great. And the penciler for this project is Chad Hardin, who has worked for DC on a number of things. And so I did a little, it was an indie comic that I worked with them on for a couple of years. We did, well, two or three years, we did a couple of issues.
00:21:15
Speaker
at a slower pace because, of course, indie comics happen mostly when people have the time, the energies and the finances to invest into making them, which is not all the time, unfortunately. But then one day I got an email from a DC editor saying, hi, you know, Chad Hardin says he likes your colours and we need a colourist for a thing with him.
00:21:38
Speaker
on this DC thing, are you in? And I was just like, I think I read that email probably 55 times in like a minute and a half, which is like, wait, does it really say DC? DC wants me? That there must be another DC. Detective comics.
00:21:55
Speaker
Not derivative comics, like the actual DC. Not definitely not those comics. And so that was kind of like, okay, so I'm doing that. And that was for an anthology, it was a short, it was the, my very first DC thing was on Harley Queen, Black and White and Red, which is very fun. And it was, again, another
00:22:18
Speaker
kind of like full circle moment because Harley Queen comics were some of the very first American comics that I bought as a kid at conventions. So it's just like, wow, not only I'm starting to work in DC, but I'm starting with like the very first DC thing that I bought when I was a kid.
00:22:36
Speaker
and that that has it was it was amazing it was incredible so and i again that was like okay well i've done this thing but if it's you know it's definitely just gonna be this thing that i was lucky this time because they probably didn't have anyone else to call and then
00:22:51
Speaker
the same team. So again, with Chad and Amanda Connor and Jimmy Ponyati, we worked on another DC short for the Super Pets, which was ridiculously fun. And yeah, and after that, kind of like more work kept coming in. I've done Justice League with Chip Sarsky, which was again another incredible thing. I had worked with Chip
00:23:18
Speaker
uh before because i've we've done some work on his uh sex criminals series for image which again when you get an email saying hi do you want to work in sex criminal i'm just like wait this i guess this might might be like an actual thing that we love never heard about and and so it's it's it's incredible when you get an email from an editor saying hi and then and it's not just
00:23:45
Speaker
Hi, I'm publisher X and I want to work with you. That's already great. But like when an editor reaches out and says, hi, Chad Hardin says they, you know, we should have you on this project. Or like Chip Sarsky wants to have you on this project. Or like Rachel Stott is the penciler on this thing and she wants you to color her stuff. And it's just, it shows how much going back to what we were saying before about like being nice and like being a good team member.
00:24:09
Speaker
How like, even if you work with someone once, it's not like I had had like, many, many years of working with Czyszewski or Rachel Stock, like we had worked together for some time, we had done shorter or longer things. But when that people, the people that you've worked with,
00:24:28
Speaker
haven't I like this imprint of you're like, Oh, that person, I liked working with them. So next time someone asks me, because that often happens, you know, a writer or a pencil is often asked
00:24:41
Speaker
you know, who should we have on the project on this? Sometimes the publisher has their own, you know, list of people they go through and like choose depending on what the style needed, what the tone, the atmosphere, the vibe of the comic or the illustration, the book, whatever is valuable throughout the industry is not just comics.
00:25:01
Speaker
But it's just very rewarding when someone that you not only admire, but like enjoyed working with turns to someone else and said, hey, that person that I've worked with last year, it was really cool. I'd like to work with them again. So yeah, it's been not, it was not just the joy of working on such incredible and well-known and loved titles, but also like doing that with a team of people that I knew valued my work and like,
00:25:30
Speaker
required my skill set because they knew that it was the thing that was correct for that project. It still surprised me every time in the best way. It's a pleasant surprise, isn't it? Especially because I'm sure many
00:25:48
Speaker
of the creatives who listen to these interviews and these chats, no, you know, there is always, oh, I'm not good enough, or like, oh, no, but I, you know, I'm sure there's someone who's better for me than me on this. And like, there will, you know, this will never happen for me and stuff like that. So when you have that kind of like, kick off, no,
00:26:09
Speaker
Wouldn't you like to prove that voice wrong? Exactly. And it's just like, you know, yeah, you know a thing or two about this and people recognize that. So it feels great.
00:26:20
Speaker
Mmm, it does feel great, but you have to work your ass off to get to the part where it feels great. Like, I will remember for the rest of my days how nerve-wracking it was the first time I stepped into New York Comic Con with packets, submission packets, ready to just hand over in my nice little manila envelopes of a graphic novel I was trying to get published as the writer.
00:26:46
Speaker
and I had assembled a team that I'd found on DeviantArt or Digital Webbing. The penciling and the coloring and even the captions I'd taken care of all of those and spent a small fortune on just getting a dozen pages, half of the first issue, together so that, you know, when I hand it over and it goes on the pile of things they'll look on later, if they get around to it,
00:27:12
Speaker
and saying, here's my book, here's what it's going for, here is the vibe, here is everything else. And just that over and over and over again. And you need to follow the rules. Like if there's a big sign on the table that says no submissions, then you don't. You are not the ones like, well, I'm gonna prove them wrong. I'm gonna break through. I'm gonna be the one that makes an impression by doing what they asked me not to.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly the short way to not being nice and not being, as we were saying, in the trifecta of the good things that you should do. Be nice and respectful of people's boundaries in all ways and shapes and forms when it comes to work. So if it's not at this time, it's not at this time, and I'm sorry, maybe there will be another chance. And if not, you'll have to make the chance happen at another moment.
00:28:03
Speaker
But I perfectly understand it's difficult. Rejection is a very true and concrete thing that happens in creative industries. And it's something that we all need to learn to deal with. And as you were saying, also not take it personally. It doesn't mean that you'll never do it. It doesn't mean that you're bad. It doesn't mean that you are...
00:28:27
Speaker
you know that there is no chance for you it's just it's just unfortunately part of the job and uh the point is making sure that it happens less and less and the only way of doing that is just by getting rejected a lot of times uh you know there is that the occasional story of the person who gets it the first time but that's not the standard unfortunately as you were saying you have to work hard it's it's really tough
00:28:52
Speaker
It's very competitive. There's a lot of people. It's a big market, but it's also a very small market at the same time because there's a certain amount of things that you can do and a certain amount of people that you can reach out to, especially when you're not in the situation of being able maybe to go to a lot of conventions, especially if you're not your space, like me. I remember the first time that I went to New York Comic-Con was
00:29:21
Speaker
2016, which is the year in which Warhammer came out because it came out for New York Comic Con. So I wasn't New York Comic Con as a professional. I was not a guest, but I was a professional at New York Comic Con. So I had my comic artist pass because I was registered as a pro for that. I gave a panel because we talked about Warhammer and the comic.
00:29:47
Speaker
the Euro comic on stage, which was a big, big thing to do. But yeah, I remember going around just like you said, through the artist's alley with my portfolios and going to artists to get reviews and then going to the
00:30:04
Speaker
publishers and editors and just, you know, my big pile of portfolios and just giving one here, one there, one... It's just... And it's... Yeah, sometimes there's a lovely person who says, thank you very much, we'll be in touch, you know, what cool stuff you have.
00:30:24
Speaker
and at the time there is someone who is there and is overworked and you know they've been there already for three days and they're a bit bored and tired and they just say yeah sure put it in the pile and the pile is high and you just have to put it on the pile and maybe who knows but if not it's just you have to just do it I remember when I if it's a very different experience from conventions at least in Italy where I grew up and
00:30:52
Speaker
most of Europe as well there's kind of like a very different, you go to the comic convention to meet the author and it's just like there's this big expectation of like this kind of like holy figure who sits at their table and they're like you know signing your book. We don't have as many, I think now it's slightly shifting without like all the
00:31:15
Speaker
comic on this and comic on that variations but in Italy it was very much like I grew up in the idea that you go there and there's this figure that shines at the end of the hall and you queue for 45 minutes and you give them your book and you cry for a second then they sign in and you go away and that was it and it's just like you lived for that very short blessing and then you bring your holy relic at home and you keep it forever
00:31:43
Speaker
But and then your comic con was completely different. It's just like when the artist is huge, and there's all these huge names that I've grown up reading or that I admire so much. And I remember I went to Terry Dodson, who, by the way, had drawn the Harley Quinn comic. So I remember going to. Yes. And I went to him and he was lovely. He was delightful. I was looking at his prints and his stuff. And he saw that I had a like my like a
00:32:10
Speaker
a folder under my arm, and it was just like, are you an artist as well? And I was like, no, no, sorry, no, I'm not. I'm not. Please don't. I'm not worthy of your attention. I was like, yes, I'm a colorist. I said, show me your stuff. I was like, oh my God, Terry Johnson is looking at my work. And it's just, it's so, it's actually very welcoming and very, it's a very welcoming, very open community from that side. Like they, we all know that we've struggled and so we understand that, you know,
00:32:40
Speaker
And there's always this kind of like exciting thing I think as well when you're a professional that you might be talking to someone who has real skills and like maybe the next big thing. So like everyone is kind of very excited of seeing what the other people are creating and see what they have in store and like who could this be a new collaborator? Could this be just someone who I'm very excited to see debut and be successful in a couple of years?
00:33:09
Speaker
So yeah, that was a big shock in the best of ways. That's so wonderful to hear. I want to circle back around to how you got started doing independent projects, collaborating with people that you could reach and connect with on the amateur level back then.
Freelancing Insights and Positivity
00:33:28
Speaker
obviously you've come a long way since then, but like in terms for our listeners of the whole freelancing vibe of the experience that can happen, like there are a couple of things that I think aspiring artists and aspiring freelancers, whether or not illustration is their area of focus. I think there are some good takeaways here because while in any
00:33:55
Speaker
Freelancing artistic industry there are gonna be the brass rings. They're gonna be the top two or three like oh, I want to work for image I want to work for DC. I want to work for Marvel
00:34:03
Speaker
I wanna work for Titan. Those opportunities will likely not present themselves at the beginning of a career, but by doing the work you can find, by starting with the work you can find and building a portfolio of a body of work so that when the time comes and you do fall on the notice of someone like Terry Dodson walking through and you have under your arm your own dossier of like, oh, well, yes, I do have my coloring work here.
00:34:33
Speaker
then that can click into place, but also just the strangeness and the unpredictability of the timing of it. One of the first voice acting jobs I ever had when I was just starting out led almost six months to a year later of more
00:34:52
Speaker
work with the same team simply because another project had rolled around and I was the only person they knew and they had enjoyed working with me the first time so they just went right back to the same source.
00:35:07
Speaker
and that is exactly how it can happen sometimes you make a good impression you get lucky sometimes also is let's be honest sometimes it is like absolutely like it's a big factor it is but with things in the creative side of the industry any industry like part of it is
00:35:27
Speaker
I'm not just doing this so that there will be a painting on a wall later or a comic on a shelf. I'm doing this because it feeds me, because I enjoy it, because I draw fulfillment from it. And if I'm going to be doing this, I want to enjoy it. And if I'm going to be doing this, I want to enjoy the people I'm working with so that the people that do complain when they get notes and are like, oh, fine, I'll do rewrites again, are like, ugh.
00:35:52
Speaker
I have to repencil that bicep for the third time fine. Well, maybe if I'd gotten it right the first time, it wouldn't have asked the second time. And like, that kind of energy can really come through, you know, in the passive aggressive little notes you get back from people like, fine, hope you like it this time, you know, garbage like that. But being easy to work with and being open to opportunities can surprise you because the more that you do that, the more
00:36:18
Speaker
that you put your work out there even in small places at first or lower levels of professionalism because I mean anyone could get a I had a deviant art page back in the day and I used half of it for just motivational demotivational movie posters because that was the thing 15 years ago.
00:36:35
Speaker
um good old deviantart but it is a good place to to find artists especially if you're looking to collaborate with people on different levels so i did want to ask you like i've also really enjoyed seeing the monsters and the character portraits that you've been putting together for your own work
00:36:54
Speaker
Erin, I wanted to ask you, where do you find your inspiration for creating monsters and other fantastic creatures?
Pandemic Projects and Patreon
00:37:03
Speaker
Can you tell our listeners what your creative process is like? Yes, of course. So a couple years ago, when we were all locked in our houses and we couldn't go outside and something very difficult happened, which was as someone who worked
00:37:20
Speaker
mainly as a comic colorist, like 90% of my work came from that. Comics distribution was halted because of distribution issues, because there was a lack of paper, like literally, I know this sounds very funny to some people, but there was no paper on which to bring comics. And that was, of course, a big issue. And then, of course, there was all the problems with, you know, coronavirus and
00:37:49
Speaker
and sickness and this and that so for a few months a comic industry came to a halt or a semi-hiatus and so some of my work was paused some of my work got delayed and I had like kind of like many of us I had to come up with something else that I wanted to do that I could do to kind of like
00:38:11
Speaker
keep myself occupied while I was still doing. We hadn't stopped working on Doctor Who. We did something that I really appreciated and we kept on going so that when distribution started again, we would not be doing things month by month, but we would have kind of like three or four comics ahead basically. So if number
00:38:32
Speaker
10 was coming out we were working on number 14 so at least that and that I was so appreciative of that because that's not something that happens a lot in comics so that was working on that but I had more time and I was like what's this thing that I really like really like character design I really like fantasy characters I like TTRPGs and things like that and so I started working on not only on character commissions for people who wanted to have their wonderful detail
00:38:58
Speaker
D&D or Pathfinder characters drawn, which was great fun for me. But I also launched a Patreon, which for those who are not very familiar is a subscription. A lot of my months in subscription, just like you're subscribed to Netflix, you can go on Patreon and maybe your favorite artists or singers or
00:39:17
Speaker
maybe podcasters have their own little Patreon that you can subscribe to and basically you get either to see their work in advance or in exclusive ahead of time for a few dollars at the month depending on what your rewards are. And so I thought you know it'd be cool to have my own little thing in which I publish
00:39:38
Speaker
character portraits that people can use in their games because that's a thing that I know is a very difficult topic. A lot of people like great art but also the people who make the great art like being paid for it and because that's their livelihood.
00:39:53
Speaker
we do need to eat. Yeah and not always the great art is affordable because it takes time to create and we do need to eat like you just said very correctly so it would be nice to have like something that allows me to experiment and like be creative and at the same time gives people an affordable resource and so I started my art venturing guild which is my
00:40:17
Speaker
Patreon which is still going strong after more than two years and a half and yes and every month I create ten characters ten portraits so it's just kind of like shoulders up of characters and at the beginning when I didn't have a lot of members it was very much like up to me and would like every month I would choose it a theme or I would have people that are my subscribers vote for a theme that they like and so and then I
00:40:43
Speaker
we would come up together with some ideas and in some cases maybe I had two or three people suggest something in other cases like especially as time went by and more and more people chimed in I would have more than enough because maybe I would have like 30 suggestions and I only have 10 slots so I would have to pick and maybe mix some of those
00:41:04
Speaker
And so we've done all kinds of things with this month we're doing undead and then like in the past we've done like the crime syndicates, we've done bird folk, yeah we've done household staff, we've done elves, we've done dwarves, like we've done like the most kind of like classical
00:41:23
Speaker
yes warriors at sea and so some of those ideas come from my my patrons my subscribers who give me I basically I tell them to give me like a short sentence like a one or two sentences so it could be you know I
00:41:42
Speaker
a grumpy old dwarf that is an engineer and his beard is full of clogs and mechanical bags or it could be something like, oh I would really like to see maybe a prophet that like in the only wears white or like stuff like that and then so sometimes it's a bit more just
00:42:01
Speaker
the script is sometimes it's a bit more of a feeling and a vibe. And so I take those ideas and I mix them with maybe other concepts that are similar that have been suggested and like mashed together very well, or like get a bit from one or the other. And then I put into that my own interpretation and like the stuff that I maybe when reading their prompt something sparks in my head, it's like, Oh, would it be interesting to take this in this other direction?
00:42:27
Speaker
Or like, oh, this month I really feel like drawing this thing so I can mix it with this idea from one of the people that have suggested stuff. And it's very fun because at the end of the month, well, at the beginning of the month, when I published the new portraits, there is always one of my favorite type of comments is when people say,
00:42:47
Speaker
oh my gosh, you took my idea and you turned this into something that I was not expecting. Even if the idea often seems straightforward, it's always so fun seeing how everyone actually sees it in a very different way. And so yeah, it's a mix of what's in my mind, what inspires me, what I see around me, be it actually in the real world or like in
00:43:14
Speaker
like through online stuff or like my art books and my reference books and the mix of like what my supporters would like to see and their creative vision. So it's again another form of team working collaboration that is just
00:43:31
Speaker
delightful. I really enjoy it. Outstanding. Yeah, I was looking forward to talking with you about making up monsters because obviously some of our listeners are making up their own monsters at home, whether it's for the joy of illustration, whether it's to put your own
00:43:49
Speaker
green skin of an existing monster on your table for D&D, things like that. But I wanted to talk with you about just the creation of the monsters and to go back to what you said about latching on to just one detail or one note from the person that was asking for it or your own feelings of inspiration. Well, this week I want to draw sea monsters.
00:44:11
Speaker
Using those details to synthesize a creature is so fun, is so satisfying to take just ingredients of elements of things, especially because they're monsters, they're made up, they are not creeping down the halls with each splorching step.
00:44:32
Speaker
although that's fun too. But, oh man, yeah, I've looked through a good chunk of the ArtVenturing Guild work that you've done, the samples that I could see on your website, and rest assured, listeners, you'll be able to see links to Aaron's gorgeous work in the details, a.k.a. the doobly-doo.
00:44:56
Speaker
But yeah, making up a character. When I was working on my first graphic novel, I took a lot of inspiration from the Venture Brothers. Not for tone, but for how creative they were with coming up with their characters. They had mashed up these seemingly incongruous
00:45:17
Speaker
characters from the Johnny Quest era of adventure fantasy, from comic books, from Saturday morning cartoons, and sometimes just mashed them together. Elements that wouldn't necessarily, you would think, work for a character, and some of them were just one-offs, and that's fine.
00:45:37
Speaker
But coming up with villains for this group, I called the Order of Despits, and working with an illustrator of like, okay, for the ground troops, we want, you know, Stormtrooper-esque with the German commando helmets minus the spike on top and a big nice number on their chest so that they never forget their henchmen.
00:46:01
Speaker
give us a faceless army, a platoon of these guys that we can just smack around and not feel bad about so that they're the first line of defense before we get to the order of despots who have filled a room modeled off of, I shit you not,
00:46:20
Speaker
Dr. Evil's moon base from the second Austin Powers film, right down to the spiky spikes jutting out of the walls and this big geodesic dome of the, cause they were on the moon because you have to put them on the moon.
00:46:36
Speaker
And the Pantheon, our Justice League, our five-man band of heroes with, you know, the classic powers, show up to the moon and beat six kinds of unholy hell out of the Order of Despits. But there was a guy with a Destro mask from GI Joe as part of his makeup and a big giant arm cannon.
00:46:57
Speaker
and another character, IQ, who just had a head as long and tall as the leader's noggin, the famous Hulk villain, one of my absolute favorites.
00:47:09
Speaker
and just mixing all these pieces together into something like, there's just a feast, a feast for the eyes, and sometimes that's all you need for a monster, you know? That core idea, some tactile texture, give it some texture like, oh, this creature has scales, or oh, this creature is in plate armor, or oh, this creature is covered with its own ooze, you know?
00:47:35
Speaker
And being able to put all these things together into something that's like, yeah, this is mine. My name is on this. I think this is cool. Here it is for public consumption, Bon Appetit. And to hear you talk about putting these characters together and
00:47:52
Speaker
listening to your audience. That's the wonderful thing about having a Patreon. I don't speak from experience myself yet, but everything I've perceived, like the people that, like you, are smart about putting together a Patreon means you're listening to your audience, you're connecting with them, and again, collaborating with them. Like, what kind of monsters do you want to see this month?
00:48:16
Speaker
What interests you what tables are you trying to fill with these characters? I'm gonna make it that much easier for you because you know what you're doing. Yes, absolutely and it's it's it's yeah, it's a joy and it's I think that it's the one of the very true strengths of TTRPG is like that sense of community that the community has and it's just like a I just thought why not why not make it one of my strengths and
00:48:45
Speaker
and the creation process. There are so many people who are passionate and interested and creative and maybe don't have the means. Maybe they just don't. Drawing is not their thing. Maybe they're writers. Maybe they're singers. Maybe they're something else. Maybe it's just they don't think that they can bring something to the table when it comes to creating art or stories and things like that. But if you're playing D&D, you are creative. There is no way that someone who's not playing any sort of
00:49:11
Speaker
TDRPG is not creative. You might not think that you're creative in the traditional sense of like, I shall draw a portrait of this beautiful lady or like this incredible painting of the sunset. That's not the only way of being creative. We're like, oh, I will shoot a movie and I will be the most known black and white
00:49:33
Speaker
you know, a French director in the universe. That's not the only way of being creative. And it's just like mixing my voice with theirs. It's just incredibly fun. It really is. It is incredibly fun to find creative harmony.
00:49:51
Speaker
um with the right team and i would encourage our listeners to keep trying new things there's there are wonderful videos out there on the interwebs about how in addition to the we won't call it a fact but the statistic that it takes roughly 10 000 hours to gain 10 000 hours of practice to gain mastery of a thing you
00:50:16
Speaker
are hopefully going to be alive, listener, longer than it takes to acquire mastery over one skill. Your life is going to be filled with chapters anywhere from seven to ten years long. That gives you multiple opportunities to get good at multiple things so that you can continue to expand your repertoire.
00:50:38
Speaker
instead of drilling down into just one school of art or one school of what you perceive as creativity. Because if there's one thing creatives are good at, it's putting limits on themselves. They don't have to put limits on. Absolutely. And also, you don't have to be a master to be skilled or to enjoy something. Just allow yourself to... Do you want to do some painting? Do you want to do some knitting? Do you want to do some photography?
00:51:05
Speaker
You don't have to be the best new name in the most famous gallery in New York City in five months to do that. Is it enjoyable? Do you find satisfaction, meditation, fulfillment, whatever is the thing that sparks that joy, that
00:51:25
Speaker
that passion that interests in you if that's if you get that you're doing it you don't have to be the best and at any point and you definitely don't have to be the best when you start and we're learning and you're enjoying it if you're enjoying it you're doing the thing
00:51:41
Speaker
Absolutely. And to circle back around to the freelancing aspect of it in terms of where and when in your story you meet someone that you eventually want to work with again, our theme song was composed by a lovely human named RJ Percinello.
00:52:01
Speaker
who I had the pleasure of working with. I was a voice actor some 15 plus years ago working on a cartoon for Discovery Kids called Pendemonium. And got to talk like a little purple marker and a couple other characters right in this register.
00:52:20
Speaker
And fast forward 15 years, and I've worked with some other people in the industry and back and forth and whatnot, and came around to, yeah, I'd like to start producing my own audio. I'd like to start putting my own things out there. Who do I know in sound design? Who do I know in music?
00:52:40
Speaker
And the first person I thought of, well, who did sound design? Who did the music on that cartoon I did ages and ages and ages ago? Fast forward to 2022. I'm in Los Angeles. RJ is in Los Angeles. He's working full time as a composer. And I reach out to him and was like, hi, we haven't spoken in at least 10 years. I hope you have fond memories of me.
00:53:05
Speaker
I love your work, would you be interested in collaborating, etc. And that's how we got to eventually merging the themes of pomp and circumstance and the classic Doctor Who theme into something that is hopefully distinctly ours. And it's not necessarily, oh, it's the greatest piece of music ever committed to audio. It's ours. It's great. Well, thank you.
00:53:31
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. And to go one step further, like to tie in the Patreon aspect of it. I, as a gamer, as someone who runs games, as a GM, I love making these things immersive as possible with sound, with visual aids. For me, it is as important and crucial as the color on the comic page.
00:53:59
Speaker
You know, it gives it life, it gives it texture, it gives it vibrancy. And the musician, his first name is Tim. He produces tabletop audio. We are a patron of his on his Patreon and get to use his wonderful library of background mood music across hundreds of soundscapes. Like, oh, this is the chase through the dark tunnel.
00:54:23
Speaker
Oh, this is creeping across the rope bridge. Oh, you've discovered a ghost town. Oh, you're on a looming Hulk that's just decaying orbit over a gas giant. All these wonderful, different musical voices and tones
00:54:40
Speaker
And because I've been familiar with his work for about two to three years now, it was the easiest thing in the world to just reach out to him and say, Hi, I'm one of your patrons. I love your work. How would you feel if we did if we used your royalty free music on our show? And he said, That'd be great. Just make sure to credit me.
00:54:59
Speaker
And we've been doing that. And the point of that is that it is my sincere hope that as your Patreon patrons continue to grow in number and you continue to build this call it relationship with them, like, you know, there's there's expectations that are met every month by you creating the artwork that they are looking forward to enjoying.
00:55:21
Speaker
And those kinds of meeting, those kinds of expectations on a regular basis is part of what being a working creative, being a working artist is all about. Absolutely, absolutely. And I think it's a difficult step to take because not everyone can.
00:55:40
Speaker
uh can do it and everyone has the energies and resources and like especially you know but it's it's it's a it's a big joy and it's freelancing is very hard and it's very daunting for a lot of people but it's i think for me it's not for everyone and it doesn't have to be for everyone but yeah there is that relationship that you build with people and like that that just pleasure on
00:56:04
Speaker
like knowing that people appreciate your work and also enjoying and like making my own work available to the people who need it and will enjoy it. And I just like the musician that you were saying, like people who are so fast to my Patreon can use the art in their games. And it's so fun when every once in a while one of them tells me, oh, I've used this character for this thing. They use this other character for that thing.
00:56:30
Speaker
And I've even seen one of the characters was used as like a big NPC in someone's campaign to the point that they commissioned an artist to draw because mine are just portraits and so like this NPC became so important in this GM's campaign that they commissioned someone for like
00:56:52
Speaker
their version of that NPC in their campaign and it was just so exciting to see that not only that character was so important someone's story but that like to the point of them wanting to bring it to life in their version and in their vision and it was just incredible and now I've just taken the next step so I've just finished a crowdfunding to make a deck
00:57:18
Speaker
So a physical deck of cards with these characters.
The Arcane Compendium Project
00:57:22
Speaker
And I've done it on Bakkerkit, which is kind of like a Kickstarter-like platform for those who are not too much.
00:57:30
Speaker
savvy when it comes to crowdfunding. But yeah, it's- We all have the skills we have. Absolutely. No, but for me as well, it's a big learning curve. And so I've done crowdfunding and so it's been successfully funded. It's great. We're in the late pledges state, so people who missed the campaign can still snack.
00:57:51
Speaker
a copy of the deck and it's yeah it's a full deck of 165 of these characters that I've created throughout the years with some new ones and there is there are two two-sided cards on one side there is a portrait and nothing else so the idea is that like a DM can tell you you are interacting with this person and showing you the face but
00:58:15
Speaker
not giving you any of the details that they don't want to actively share with you. And then on the back there's their name, their job title, and then some plot hooks about their personality, their quirks, their flaws, and it's all system agnostic because I wanted to make sure that people who play different games could just access it and play
00:58:36
Speaker
in like whatever you know just because a character has pointy ears doesn't mean they're necessarily an elf like maybe in the world everyone they could be an alien they could be a species of pointy eared yeah maybe they're everyone has got pointy ears in their universe or maybe you know the fact that they are blue skin they could be a siren they could be a genasi they could be a you know a genie whatever you want them to be i don't i don't want to put that limit
00:59:02
Speaker
on their creativity. So it's been a joy. And for that as well, like there's been, I've been chatting with the people who were involved in the project and like the backers and they can give me feedback. And so we are creating a few new characters for that as well. And it's a joy to see also people interact with each other and say maybe someone has an idea and people say, oh my gosh, I love this idea. I would love to see this. And maybe let's add this on top and like people build on top of each other. It's just wonderful.
00:59:31
Speaker
Sounds wonderful. Would this happen to be your arcane compendium that you're describing in such lovely detail? It is. It is my arcane compendium.
00:59:41
Speaker
That's fantastic. That's just fantastic. I think you've hit on something that our listeners who are aspiring artists and working artists may not have latched onto yet, is the longer you do the thing that you take a passion for, the more good work you start to build a library of.
01:00:05
Speaker
Because it is through the fact that you have put 10 of these inspired characters together every month, over and over and over and over again, that you now have dozens of these characters that you can make an entire deck from. And they are your property. They are your characters.
01:00:25
Speaker
that you can use in the future. And I absolutely love the idea of system agnostic plug-in play characters because, honestly, as a storyteller, sometimes just the right look of a character immediately sparks the inspiration of, ooh, I know exactly what to do with that one. And...
01:00:49
Speaker
That is that is just so fantastic and I gotta say that must be nice also to have a physical copy of the finished deck that you can flip through. I am so excited about that but yeah absolutely it's you know it's been more than two years of putting out 10 characters every month so there is 12 months in a year plus making two years and a half plus you know occasionally maybe I do
01:01:15
Speaker
public poll or maybe like for Halloween I will do a special one and like there is so there is more more than 200 characters to choose from so even the deck is like a condensed edition because there is less than I have in the art mentoring guild but and there's also like new ones created specifically for the deck for the arcane compendium and but yeah and and I wanted it to be something that allowed creative freedom
01:01:43
Speaker
and like the most complete of ways because I want you know if if you're the DM and you like your GM or whatever game you're playing and you see the card and you like the portrait and that character for you is something completely different from what's behind it I want you to do the version of the character that that speaks to you you know if if that character is not what I assigned
01:02:05
Speaker
it to be at the back of the card. You should take that and play that as you want. If you like some of the details, you can use those details if you want to change their name. I absolutely want people to be able to just enjoy and create and be inspired. And that is why also one of the things that I wrote as well when I was coming up with the campaign and I wrote on the campaign page was that I want people to use the stack in whatever way
01:02:30
Speaker
So it's their needs and their curiosity and their fun. So like if you, you know, it could be something that you can use randomly. So like, let's see who you're encountered today. Like, let's see who you bump into at the market. And like people can either choose randomly or maybe they can choose. I show you three faces and you tell me who's the one that you would stop in the crowd and interact with.
01:02:53
Speaker
So that it's just kind of like a fun, you know, it encourages improv in the best way, but also like gives the person who's organizing and like creating the story like a little bit of a
01:03:06
Speaker
safety net to fall on because you have those few information blocks that are just good enough to help you structure the character without telling you where exactly this character is headed and everything about them and it also it's great fun because people can just like you can select random characters to play for a one shot like oh
01:03:29
Speaker
Let's have a fun crazy heist. Who are you going to play? I don't know. Let's grab a random character and it's just like it really pushes people to have fun and experiment. Maybe try something that they haven't done a lot throughout maybe a two-year campaign and they've been kind of like very stable in their long
01:03:47
Speaker
term character and now it's just kind of like let's shake things up but let's do something different and yeah I think it's just it's it's the kind of stuff that I that I really enjoy and I think that it's it's the kind of things that the community thrives on when it's just like I am giving you the tools to do whatever you want and whatever makes you happy
01:04:10
Speaker
that's wonderful thank you for the work that you've done thank you for the characters that you've created for the art venturing guild and for your arcane compendium because the more beautiful tools you can put at the fingertips of creative players creative gms and dms who want to
01:04:32
Speaker
flesh out their cast of NPCs for an upcoming adventure or even just a one-off game. It just multiplies creativity on top of creativity and that's wonderful to see.
Doctor Who Comics and Favorite Monsters
01:04:44
Speaker
I did want to ask you
01:04:47
Speaker
As someone that has actually worked on the Doctor Who comic for Titan, do you have a favorite alien or monster from Doctor Who? Was there a particular character you really enjoyed coloring on that comic? What was it like for you?
01:05:03
Speaker
I was great. It was fun. I was not initially of course Doctor Who is not as famous as it was like as it is definitely here in the UK where I live now but like I had many friends in at uni who were big Doctor Who fans and so I basically
01:05:21
Speaker
got to know a lot of things about Doctor Who through them. And then when this opportunity came up, I was like, well, I guess I have to start watching a few things. That's incredible. The first things that I did was we did some very short stories on 10th and 11th and 12th Doctor.
01:05:41
Speaker
So I had to make sure that I was familiar with the subject because I liked, you know, I want to make sure that if there's like a specific palette, if there is specific vibe, I wanted to be aware of that when coloring, especially because some of these short stories took place in specific episodes. So like, ooh, on the spaceship, this is the color scheme that was around the spaceship or like, ooh, you know,
01:06:04
Speaker
the jacket, the things, the pinstripe, like the details and stuff. The color of the shirt. Yeah. And I'm very particular with that. I really like the details and I think that really brings out the
01:06:17
Speaker
character in a in a way that is not obvious but really if you add up all those little things it comes together so that's when like I got to see all the the huge universe that is behind all of this and like the huge love and attention and care I think that probably that's so difficult I think the weeping angels are always like a
01:06:41
Speaker
a favorite not just a fan favorite but it's just kind of like oh that was uh something that like stays with you oh my yes we get to use the weeping angels uh in an upcoming mod called gallery of fear they are such an iconic villain
01:07:03
Speaker
who have faced their own challenges with bad guy decay, the more they get used, the less mystery there is behind them, et cetera. But for that first, for that first experience, when you turn the corner and it's like, oh, it's just a statue of a woman holding her face in her hands. And the gasp from the players like, oh, is just, oh, it's candy. It's so good. Yeah, delightful.
01:07:33
Speaker
That's wonderful. Erin, it has been such an absolute treat talking with you today. Can you tell our listeners how they can get in touch with you? Absolutely. It's pretty easy. You can find me on the internets at Erin Angelini. So I'm on Twitter, X, whatever, as long as it stays up. I'll be there until the ship sinks completely, but hopefully not.
01:07:59
Speaker
And you can find me on Instagram, you can find me on Blue Sky if you are already on that other ship. We are, as a matter of fact. Yes, wonderful. But yeah, so add an Angelini on all of those, and then you can find me on addanangelini.com. Again, very easy. It's always the same name, it's always the same thing.
01:08:20
Speaker
and I also have a newsletter which you can find on my on my socials but there's it's linked in all my link bios and things but it's also on my website there is a nice little page for it you can subscribe you get when you subscribe you get a free
01:08:35
Speaker
NPC to use in your games and I send you some monthly updates on what conventions I'm going to be at, what new projects I'm working on, what new NPC package has released this month and if I have any new exciting projects coming up. So that's also a very good way to keep in contact and not being slave of the algorithms.
01:09:00
Speaker
Curse those algorithms. No, that's fantastic news. And rest assured, our listeners will be able to find their way to you via the doobly-doo. Yes, wonderful.
01:09:13
Speaker
And I'm always very happy. Oh, sorry. I just want to say I'm very happy to let people have any questions, reach out, DM me. I'm happy to talk to folks about working in the industry or like where to find my work or like how to support folks and stuff like that. So everyone can feel free to reach out. Marvelous. Aaron, it's been such a treat talking with you today.
01:09:35
Speaker
It's been wonderful to talk to you as well. I love these chats like this because it's just great fun and it kind of like sparks that flame which is like, oh yes, I want to do more things now. Magnificent. And finally, to our listeners, another great big thank you for sharing your precious time with us. If you feel it's been well spent, please share the joy of GMing with your friends who are looking to enjoy themselves.
01:10:03
Speaker
You can email your questions for me and our future guests and send that lovely fan art to anywherebutnowpodcastatgmail.com. And if you'd like me to run a game of Doctor Who for you, reach out on startplaying.games. Leave a review, rate the show, and follow us on Blue Sky, Twitter, and YouTube at anywherebutnow and wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to join our Discord. Links to everything in the doobly-doo.
01:10:31
Speaker
From all of us, I'm Casey Jones. There's exciting things to come, my friends. I'm glad you're along for the ride. Thank you so much, and have a great day.