faq
Who is marmalade mum?
I was born on October 18th and come from a somewhat big family of artists. I draw comics, illustrations and animations, mostly of the NSFW variety. My first income from art was from taking commissions in 2014, but have been drawing as a hobby since I could hold a pencil. I started a Patreon in 2018, got banned in 2020 (on my birthday!) for drawing TF porn, then I’ve had a SubscribeStar instead since then because their TOS is much more lenient. In those 10 years of figuring out art as a source of income, it took me 4 of those years to start breaking even just doing commissions, then another 2 years to grow enough to start seeing a profit. Without the people around me when I first started out supporting me financially, I wouldn’t have been able to succeed. It was a real struggle.
How and why did I start drawing NSFW?
As many artists do, I came to a crossroads of whether or not I should pursue NSFW art. Truly I wasn’t sure if I should do it. Growing up I did have a dirty mind and read plenty of NSFW at that point. I had even drawn NSFW by the time I was 8 for my elementary school boyfriend. I had a couple motives for it:
1. I was already comfortable with the idea of drawing it and
2. I was told it was a quicker way to gain profit, and I was so broke.
So I gave it a shot and it stuck.
Did you always want to draw NSFW? What was the original dream?
To be honest, my original dream was to create children’s picture books, which is a total far cry from what I ended up doing. Weird, right? Sometimes I like to wonder if I would have been successful at all with it and how far it could have taken me.
Why do you draw transformation? Is it your fetish?
Okay, so if you’ve ever watched the movie Van Helsing (2004) featuring Hugh Jackman, you know what’s up. I was really into vampires and werewolves for a really long time, and in fact when I was around 13-14 years old I also wanted to be a chemist that could give people animal ears and tails and turn them into kemonomimi. Funnily enough though, this was not a fetish and I just liked the idea anatomy getting altered and I loved Hugh Jackman. Transformation wasn’t what I liked looking at in that movie, it was Hugh Jackman being shirtless and sweaty. I’m shocked it didn’t turn into a fetish honestly.
A list of my favourite things!
Wild animals: desert rain frog, barn owl, fruit bat, wolves,
Domestic animals: dogs, british shorthair cat or maine coon, chickens, alpacas
Anime: Oshi No Ko, Demon Slayer, Inuyasha, Porco Rosso or older Ghibli movies, Coboy Bebop, Hunter X Hunter (before the bugs)
Video Games: Animal Crossing (all), Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, CoD: BO3, Mario Kart (all)
NSFW Comics: Alfie (Incase), Ishuukan Friends (Dotsuco), Business Casual (Meesh)
Art Medium: Digital, I get physically sick doing traditional from the smell and also looking down.
Foods: soup and sandwich combo, medium rare steak, pizza, ramen with lots of meat, fried eggs
Drinks: iced water, chai latte, pumpkin spice latte, iced sweet tea, iced brown sugar coffee
What animal would you transform into?
If I had to choose, and let’s say it’d just turn me into an anthro and I kept my complete intelligence as a human, I think I’d pick some sort of cat. I’d like to have better balance and reflexes since I’m very clumsy in real life. Maybe a big cat, like a snow leopard. They’re very pretty.
Have you had any formal education regarding art?
I haven’t gone to any post secondary school for art, but I did pay for a couple of courses on anatomy from a professional teacher, each course being 8 weeks long. Other than that, I studied many art books! Having a wide variety of teaching tools available is great, on top of having someone tell you where you’re going wrong is absolute top tier. I made most of my art progress under that teacher.
How long did it take you to become a successful full time artist?
Oh, a few years definitely. It was very rough starting out. At first I lived in my mom’s basement after graduating high school and my partner at the time financially supported me for a couple years after that in our own place. In the first year and a bit I only took commissions, but my art wasn’t good enough to charge a proper amount so I was working lessing than half of minimum wage. Then I got better, started a Patreon, started doing comics, and bing bam wazoo, I started doing better and then I was the one able to financially support.
Do you have any other unique skills aside from art?
Nowadays I only really draw, but I enjoy voice acting in my animations, I used to crochet a lot and would make dog sweaters, I can make 3D models and almost do the whole process on my own, I have the ability where people open up to me almost instantly in real life and they can be total strangers. I also like cake decorating!
Who are your favourite characters you’ve created?
I have a really hard time getting attached to my characters because I felt like they weren’t really mine when first creating them or implementing them into my stories. When creating Honey for example, I wanted her to be mixed. Blonde wavy type hair, blue eyes, and with dark skin. Then she was changed. I made Summer to compliment Honey’s design and to appeal to the person writing the story. Other characters, like Cassie, were created by me physically, but the personalities weren’t because of the comic writing. I view characters as a way to tell stories now and I think each one I make is necessary, but not really favourited or attached to. I’m hoping this mindset changes as I create new works with no outside influences because I want to learn to love my characters as much as you guys do.
What other artists have influenced you?
I saw the funniest thing on 4chan where people were claiming the artist Cyan Capsule was copying my style, and the reason I find it so funny is because it’s so far from the truth. I really love their art style and so studied a bit off of it and now we share some aspects. If anyone could be said to have been copying, which isn’t what happened, it’d be me! They have such fun colors and proportions in their characters, and the creativity in all of their work is astounding.
Another person I love the art of is Sabs_Art. Their understanding of color and composition is absolutely amazing. Always gets me wanting to draw.
There’s CalmDraws as well, but they were more of an earlier influence in my art career. The colors and composition and closeups they do also make me want to draw.
Lastly there’s Dotsuco, who I mentioned does some of my favourite comics above. The style is just so appealing to me and the faces are so cute and sassy. All of these artists are just so good!
What's your artistic process?
When I create comics, first I begin with getting a story idea or inspiration or a hook. I begin to write out a summary of what I want to happen in the story, plot points, story beats, and then the personality of the characters and how they’d interact in that situation. Then I flesh it out, edit it, and write it in a way that makes sense to me so I understand what needs to go on each page for when I begin the storyboard. When I do get to it, at this point in my career I understand paneling very well and how to grasp a readers attention and where things should go or how big a panel should be. Some things written out may not actually look good when paneled out, so some minor edits will take place. Then once most of the comic or chapter is sketched out, I begin lining and coloring one page at a time. If I do lines all at once, I get carpal tunnel. Once I start catching up to what I’ve got sketched, then I begin the sketching process again. If it’s a shorter 30 page comic, I definitely will sketch everything beforehand, but if it’s something way longer like Chemistry Class, I’ll sketch about 20 pages at a time and catch up.
How do you handle criticism?
I handle it well. Years on 4chan taught me that. There’s a huge difference between actual constructive criticism and people being obtuse or mean just because the content isn’t something they like. People saying “this art is wasted because she draws this and that fetish” isn’t critique. I can simply ignore it and shrug it off. Telling me respectfully that you’ve found inconsistencies in my story or the character acting in a way doesn’t make sense, or telling me that I’ve forgotten to draw clothing on a bench for the umpteenth time, that is constructive. I listen to them.
I appreciate the people that actually do want to critique my things and know how to tell me it without swearing or being disrespectful. Of course this doesn’t mean I need it sugar coated. Just polite.
What are rumours/gossip surrounding you, and how accurate are they?
That I’m a Nazi. An Anti-semite. A racist. These statements exist because of some unsavoury tweets made under my account name but weren’t actually me.
Long story short, I was in an abusive relationship where I was controlled and got used to feeling small and dumb. It took me only about a decade to grow a back bone and leave him. He was my first serious relationship that started when I was 15, lasted for almost 9 years, but continued on as a twisted version of friendship for a couple more years after that. He used my account to gain clout because I had more of a “reach” than his own account. Now, I’ve moved away from him. I’m in a healthy relationship. I’m not controlled or being put down. I could write a whole essay to explain in depth what happened, but I’d rather forget it and stop bringing it up.
I wanted to address this because it’s easy to say “Oh Marmalade, you’re just back pedaling” because those were some awful statements. I want to tell you, the only politics I truly care about are Canadian politics, and nobody gives a rats ass about posting those online. Some US politics I care about since I get paid in USD, but that’s it.
I don’t care about what Jews do, I only care about what an individual does. If someone is being a scummy billionaire and they happen to be Jewish, then I only see them as a scummy billionaire and don’t associate the religious part. It’s not like some Jewish comedian is plotting world annihilation.
I’m not a Nazi just because I drew a hot Nazi babe interrogator, or because I think people should be allowed to say what they want. I think people who do say what they want are subject to receive criticism about what they say. Simple as that. Everyone gets called a Nazi nowadays and because of that it’s lost most of it’s meaning. Big whoop.
I do think wanting to be transgender is a mental health issue, but I don’t hate people who are trans. That’s like saying you hate people with depression. I have friends who are trans and I’m not going to go up to them and point and say “your mentally ill!” That’s not my job. It’s my job to just enjoy the person they are and be friends. I’m not going to openly advocate for people turning trans because it’s a much deeper issue than that.
As for being racist, like, who isn’t? I’m not going around using the “N” word, if I do say it, you’re not going to hear it because I’m just singing rap in my car alone. But is that even racist if it’s just lyrics?
Nobody can undo the damage that a bunch of native bullies did to me as a child, nobody can un-kill my pet mouse or make me un-vomit my meals so they would stay for a sleepover. I have preconceived ideas towards certain Native people because of how I was treated growing up, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be friends with decent people who happen to also be Native. I’ll always give people a chance, but goddamn am I scarred from people similar to them.
If I see someone who looks shady, regardless of race, I’m going to cross the street, if I see a woman who looks like a model, regardless of race, I’m going to think she’s beautiful.
I recently moved to a neighbourhood where about 50% of the people here are black, and the only preconceived notions I’ve got from them is the men yell GYAT when I walk past. Only the black men do this. Like what, is that racist that I feel uncomfortable about my ass now when I see a black guy?
These are just first impressions though. If someone matters enough, and I end up being friends with someone, all of those stereotypes and preconceived ideas fly out the window and I just see a human.