I think I have plenty of questions to be getting on with, so let's start! Thanks to everybody who contributed, hopefully I can answer all these well!
UmiMikoDesu -
How or where did you learn to draw muscles correctly?
A big, big part of it is practice. Try not to use the same method over and over again and develop the way you draw, finding out what works for you. You can also try to find a reference image similar to the pose you want to really keep the musculature accurate.
I do 2-3 base sketches when I'm drawing, and the last is basically an anatomy model where I sketch out all the musculature, like here -
Ellie Sketch. That helps keep the final outline looking right.
abslover123 -
I'm curious how long you usually spend on a drawing, are there any pictures you spent a particularly long time on? Was it a case of trying to get a particular thing right? Or just a super detailed scene.It's difficult to say... most of them I do in more than one sitting and even when I draw a full piece in one sitting I often get sidetracked and have breaks.
I'm fairly sure
Sam's Forest Exile - Month Five took over 10 hours, while
Jinora - Light as a Feather took 2 or 3. I remember
Jessica: The Junkyard (REWORK) I could NOT get right despite spending a very long time on, even coming back months later to fix it. I also spent a lot of time being very picky with
Rachel and Amy (100,000 Pageviews!).
surfingdiamond -
Which characters/designs were the inspirations for your four main OCs?
Early Rachel drawings were almost entirely inspired by two women - fitness model
Vanessa Serros and actress
Meghan Markle (now married to the Prince of my country in a surprising turn of events). She's even named after Meghan Markle's character in Suits. More recently she's taken a lot of inspiration from
this instagram page.
Sam was inspired by a chat with abslover123, alongside with a few pictures of
Anu Lehtoranta that resulted in
these three stories. It was also from a desire to have a girl who was less of a conventionally pretty muscle girl than Rachel. I wanted her buff, gruff, filthy and gritty, with stains on her clothes and scars on her skin. I'm hoping to develop this from the ground up with her reboot.
Hannah and Ellie are harder to pin down... Hannah was partly based on a toned, short haired blonde woman with abs doing an exotic dance in a video I saw but can't find at the moment. I also wanted a character more based exhibitionism and showing off her appearance.
As for Ellie, well... I like redheads?
AlvinophiliaComics -
What originally caused you to be attracted to women with defined ab muscles?At this stage it's difficult to say. I think actually I was first interested in seeing women work out and push their limits. With that came looking up a LOT of videos and pictures. Abs just seemed to be the pinnacle of athleticism I suppose.
FireShock10 -
What's your biggest inspiration for your works?
Definitely the exceptional women I see in online pictures and videos, as well as the like-minded people I regularly talk to on the subject and the other artists I see.
Aside from the abs, what other muscles do you like the most?It genuinely switches around with my mood... I want to say shoulder and bicep muscles. That said, back and quads are gorgeous too, it's a tricky choice.
In both categories of fan art and original works, who are your favorite characters in both categories?- Original characters
Ally and Lisa:
Sunstone Calender - The most gorgeous couple in existence.
Wossy and Aeria:
Gagmatism - One of the cutest couples ever.
Megan:
Camo pants Megan - Absolutely beautiful.
- Fandom characters
Korra - Avatar
Yang Xiao Long - RWBY
Ty Lee - Avatar
Brigitte - Overwatch
Tracer - Overwatch
What are your favorite kinds of drawings? Ergo, what do you like to draw the most?Generally, I think I have the most fun drawing workouts when they have BDSM aspects to them. But like most things it really depends on what mood I'm in.
Just what tools and programs do you use for your works and where do you get them?I use Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom graphics tablet - both are available online.
How did you do your drawings?
I partly went over this a few questions ago. As well as the tools/programs I use plenty of reference images and base sketches.
Any tips that you can give me, especially for drawings, coloring, and shading, especially for muscles, poses, and angles?
The best advice I could give you is to practice. Try out different things and be critical of your own work.
If I'm having trouble with poses, I'll make a very small stick figure sketch trying to set out the right angle, then enlarge it and make another rough sketch over it. For muscles, more base sketches. Shading often takes me multiple attempts to get right, but I normally draw it in roughly, smudge it to get the look right and then use the eraser tool to clean it up. I might make something with more information on my own drawing in the future.
Is it okay if I draw one of your original characters?
Absolutely! I'd love to see it.
How did you set up a PayPal and Patreon account? How about setting up commissions?I don't have a Patreon account, but PayPal is fairly easy to sign up for on the website. You do need to use your real identity details though or risk having your account suspended.
How can I become more popular in this site, or at least get noticed by more people?
I think the best way to gain popularity without having insane drawing skills (trust me I know how that feels) is to cater to a niche. Focus on something specific that you really like and you'll be sure to find other people who like it too. Practice, maybe take some requests and be sure to engage your audience and be friendly. Of course, practicing and developing your art skill is still very important.
Among your previous works, which ones are your favorites?
I have a soft spot for some of my older works, that I'm still really proud of and I think were a big part in developing my characters.
Rachel's Static Hold and
Sam's Forest Exile - Month Five come to mind. I love
Toph's Ab Workout - ATLA too, and still want to try out more with that cartoony comic addition.
The more I look, the more favourites I could pick, but I'm starting to worry about looking big headed!
What's next in store for you in terms of works and projects?
It's going to be commissions for a little while - I'm very grateful to say that I've got several to get through. After that, I have plenty of ideas for Rachel and Amy, and I want to write more stories. Sam and Ellie will get plenty of love too eventually.
crazyman54Will you start doing more physical types of fanfics like two characters fighting with an emphasis on belly punching?Generally I have no plans to, but a commission coming soon might be right up your street! Abs punching will always play a part in my work though.
beez1717How do you come up with new characters and ideas?Most of my ideas and characters generally come to mind while chatting to like-minded people. In fact, Sam and Ellie are almost entirely the result of collaboration. A lot of my ideas also come from instagram and youtube videos.
How did you learn to draw muscles so well?Practice, and lots of perving on videos and images... I've answered in a bit more of a helpful fashion above. Although I think it's worth saying that I have a long way to go with some areas.
Where did the name Abdomental come from?I came up with half a dozen lame ab-related puns when making the page and decided on Abdomental. Abdomaniac was a close runner up.
Who did Ellie beat to get her gold collar?That's a story that's for the future...
How did Ellie get into her school?Ellie was obsessed with training virtually all her life. An ad-hoc home video her mother took of her doing an obscene number of pull ups ended up on the internet and went viral, and shortly after an Academy recruiter tracked her down.
What got Hannah to start working out?She was always quite naturally athletic and began to enjoy the superiority she felt outperforming others. Then she grew addicted to it, and the attention...
How did Rachel meet Amy?Amy was the late night receptionist at the gym Rachel frequented. It was often just the two of them in the gym and a bit of casual conversation as she entered and left turned into flirting, turned into helping her train, turned into much, much more.
Will you ever put your characters together?
I don't think so I'm afraid... not in a canon setting at least.
Who are some of your favorite artists on DeviantArt?*inhales deeply*
pixeljail.deviantart.com,
hellequin11.deviantart.com,
shiniez.deviantart.com,
jeffroww.deviantart.com,
vashperado.deviantart.com,
atastretch.deviantart.com and
cmgjim.deviantart.com are all must-watches that come to mind. I'm sure there are more.
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Thanks for reading if you made it this far! And thanks very much to everybody who submitted questions. I've answered these over a couple of days so sorry if I've repeated myself without realising. I'd love to hear any replies or more questions, so comment away below!
P.S. If you leave a journal for a day and then try to click submit it tells you that the session timed out and deletes the ENTIRE thing. Thank God I copied it into a word document before I tried to submit it. I'm gonna go deal with my in-progress heart attack now...