Monday, October 1, 2012

I love promoting my affiliates and their sites. Especially when the affiliate is a graphics site. I do love the graphics. Not much of a secret there. But when the affiliate is a graphic artist and a writer, well that's a lot of falling all over myself.

The first time I encountered Ange de L'aube was by her avi on twitter. It was the kitten in the frog costume and I thought it was just the cutest thing. Once I started browsing her graphics site, I became an immediate fan. Amazing graphics and very unique. 

Next was her one shot, The Sum of All Your Choices for the Fic This Gif contest. Did you know she is a writer as well? What a great story! You really need to read it. 

I am now her official stalker. 

Ange is one of my favorite people in the fandom. Extremely talented, a nice person, a generous person giving her time to the fandom causes, and always there to help out and create for her friends (wink). She really exemplifies what is truly good about the fandom and why I stick around.

But I am a well known stalker at heart. So as much as I adore Ange, I want to know things too! 

So let's see what I was able to discover about the lovely...

Tell us about your site -

My site is just basically where I post all my crazy photoshop experiments. It's nothing too fancy really. :)

Why did you decide to create the site?

I write and make banners, so in the beginning I used to have one site for everything. I'm self-taught in using Photoshop though, so when I was starting out I TRULY sucked. One day I decided I shouldn't force people who read my stories to endure my awful beginner tries at banner-making so I created my wordpress blog to host my Photoshop-crazy.

What would you like your site to accomplish?

Hahahaha. I never set out to accomplish anything other than share my experiments in banner-making. At times it does serve a purpose when I make fan art and I get to rec a story I'm really enjoying but mostly it's just to share my Photoshop creations. 

How do you decide what to create?

Once upon a time I used to take banner/blinkie requests so I created just about everything. Nowadays, I don't have the time anymore so I create mostly fan art (and Fandom Causes banners.) For me to make a banner for a story I simply have to be visually inspired. What I mean is that I have to be able to visualize a graphic that represents that story in my head. I have a HUGE collection of pictures of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart and since I mostly only read E&B fic I can pick the pictures I'd like to use while reading. Blinkies are trickier, they are like tiny movie trailers. When I was starting out I used to make Youtube fanvids under another pseudonym. So when I think of a blinkie I not only have to be able to visualize a graphic, but also a storyline for the blinkie. I need to be able to 'see' in my head which scene will be 'scene1' which 'scene 2', etc. So I don't usually make blinkies for just any story I like. 

Writing vs Graphics - does one out weigh the other for you? 

Definitely graphics. I find making graphics easy. I can make a banner or a blinkie by myself with no one else's interference or help. Whereas I need betas to write. My mother tongue is Spanish and I live in a Spanish-speaking country so I have big issues with English grammar. I try and I can't deny I have improved a lot since my early days, however I'll never be at the level of a native speaker, which is why I find writing frustrating at times.

Do you have any plans for the future of your site that you would like to share? A little secret perhaps??

My goal is and has always been to be able to take banner requests again. I just never seem to have the time. So I think things will stay as they are for the time being until I can organize my real life.

Favorite thing about the twific fandom?

Fangirling...lol I was part of another fandom when I was younger and I swear the Twi-fandom is truly obsessive in comparison to others. It's amazing the amount of energy the Twi-fandom has for fangirling. We are so enthusiastic. I remember a few times we crashed Twitter during award shows and such.

How did you and the fandom find each other?

Well, I've been a Harry Potter fan since I was a kid. I'm part of the Harry Potter generation. When I was in my teens I was introduced to Cedric Diggory (who as you know was played by none other than Robert Pattinson.) When I saw he had a movie out in 2008 about a vampire falling for a human I said to my sister, let's go watch it! I fell in love with Rob all over again. I devoured the Twilight books in 4 days after watching the movie and wanted more, so I read Midnight Sun. It wasn't complete, as you know, so I googled it to find a continuation and stumbled upon fanfiction.net. I never looked back...lol

Any thoughts on the twitter drama llama's?

I have many, many thoughts...lol But I can easily summarize them in 'get a life, damn it!' lol I firmly believe in keeping my mouth shut if I have nothing nice to say and I hate speculating about other people's lives and/or intentions. If it doesn't affect me I don't get involved. I even deleted my old twitter because I could stand the drama no more. I think drama llamas must have sad, unfulfilled real lives to spend so much of their time bitching on twitter.

Tell me about the kitty in the frog costume moniker on your banners -

I call it the 'frogitty'. It doesn't really have a history. When I opened my twitter account I googled 'cute kitty' because I'm an animal lover, and always found kitties to be particularly cute. I wanted a cutesy avatar so I used the cat in a frog custom picture because I found it the cutest of the bunch. I used it everywhere, Twilighted, Fanfiction.net, and my Twitter and in time people started to identify me with it for some reason. 

Like you know how some people have avatars with some form of RobPorn with his hands and Rob's hands are their thing? Well my thing is the frogitty, so when I was making graphics for my site I tried to incorporate them into my graphics so I had a sort of 'brand' if that makes sense. Kind of like your 'brand' is original-ward which I see in most of your graphics.

And lastly, if stranded on a deserted island, what one book boyfriend from any story would you have with you?

I guess I would take McKenna from Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas. I love that book and have re-read it more times than I can count. The romance in that book is so amazing. McKenna is such an amazing character. He loved Aline for years and has never been able to stop loving her no matter the time and distance between them. I'm a hopeless romantic so that type of 'survive all obstacles' love really makes me swoon.


Frogitty! You have to love it!

"To love is to risk not being loved in return.To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing."

Stop by and check out Ange's graphics and stories. You will truly become an immediate fan!

Thanks again Ange for putting up with my stalking tendencies!! 

{ 2 comments... read them below or Comment }

  1. You are the best bb... Did you know that? I <3 you :-)

  2. her avi is too cute! .... and such pretty graphics on her blog!