learn about me in excruciating detail!

If you haven’t caught on already, then HEY! …I’m Kris Valdespino! My first name is short for Kristian, but for the sake of keeping myself asleep at night, just call me Kris.

I'm a 17-year-old Floridian cartoonist and a somewhat-decent-enough artist with aspirations too difficult to explain in a single sentence.

Being a "cartoonist," I like to draw cartoon characters, write cartoon scripts, and refuse to learn anything about anatomy. I also animate cartoons on rare occasions, but that requires a lot of willpower and patience that I just don’t have. I tend to be cool with others and crude on occasion. Otherwise, if I'm hearing people goof off and do stupid shit right beside me, I will rip my hair off and jump out of the closed window. Oh yeah, I also have a weird sense of humor… I guarantee you'll sigh and groan from it constantly!

Like any creative youngling, I’ve loved to draw since I was a little wears-his-underpants-only baby. In the 5th grade, after drawing a lot of admittedly unflattering comics on sheets of paper and getting my first laptop in Christmas of 2017, I decided that I wanted to be a digital artist for the rest of my life. And now, after years of being a teenage slum, I'm still drawing a lot of admittedly unflattering… shit! Now with curse words! Ahh, the perks of growing up…

How do you pronounce 'siahri?'

My pronouns are he/him, thank you for asking.

Why are you called that? What does that even mean?

It doesn't mean anything. I didn't even come up with the username. I adopted it from a PSN account that I adopted within a PS3 Slim that I adopted in September 2015. Being young with little self-esteem, of course, I've since claimed it as my own brand identity and at this point, it would be hard to go under something else.

Who is Krisch and Cray?

Krisch is a flying goldfish jokingly designed after my avatar head silhouette. He was drawn by Lurking Maniac for my 16th birthday, and I loved him so much that I basically stole the fishy prick from him. He used to be called "Krish," but I've renamed him "Krisch," since my name doesn't start with a 'Ch' while the fish ends with it!

Cray is a possessed bunny plush designed after my sister, Kay. When I asked her what sidekick she'd want, she wanted a stuffed bunny, so I drew up just that, using GIR, Junior Sniffers, and an old rabbit avatar from 2018 as reference. Cray is named as such because it ryhmes with Kay and it's defined as being crazy.

What got you to draw and animate?

Honestly, I have no clue why I started drawing. I've been drawing for so long that I practically forgot what made me draw in the first place. I do remember during the 5th grade, after watching a couple episodes of the original DuckTales during aftercare, I was inspired to draw a ton of comics instead of socializing with other kids.

I got into animating after watching some storytime animators during their peak, like TheOdd1sOut and Let Me Explain Studios, alongside other animated content like Thomas Ridgewell's asdfmovies and Joseph R. Carroll's Kabloosh videos.

What software do you use?

Yeah, I don’t feel like explaining it thoroughly. Here’s a table instead.

Windows Movie Maker	March 2018-July 2018, April 2019-June 2020
Microsoft Paint	March-December 2018
Panzoid Clipmaker 2	June 2018-present (3D graphics) October 2018-May 2022 (2D animation)
Audacity	October 2018-present
Paint.net	October 2018-2023 (image editing) December 2018-April 2019 (drawing)
MediBang Paint	April 2019-November 2022
Shotcut	December 2020-present
Adobe Photoshop	August 2022-present
Adobe Animate	December 2022-pending
FireAlpaca	July 2023, July-August 2024

What hardware do you use?

As of 2022, I draw with a UGEE M708 graphic tablet, I use my HP ProDesk desktop, and I "professionally" record with a Blue Yeti microphone.

In the past, I used a blue dinky HP Stream laptop and drew with its touchpad. I did get a Huion Inspiroy Q11K in 2018, but I never used it and had it sold two years later. Eventually in March 2020, I “upgraded” to a slightly bigger black HP Stream that sucked ass. I drew on it as well until its touchpad stopped working, so I used both Streams simultaneously: black Stream for web browsing, blue Stream for drawing.

I soon got a ProDesk in Christmas 2021 but still drew with the blue Stream until May 2022 when I got fed up drawing with a touchpad. I briefly drew with a Huion Inspiroy H1060P until Christmas of 2022, when I finally got an M708 after using one at my 10th grade Photoshop class.

Wait, you used to draw with a touchpad!?

Yeah, and it sucked! Please don't draw with a touchpad or mouse! You don't need a fancy display tablet to draw good, just ask your parents for a graphics tablet. You'll be able to draw efficiently with it. After all, improvement comes from utilizing the most comfortable equipment until it constrains us.

Why do you post so infrequently?

Look, it's difficult to keep up with the internet, especially when I have a dozen other things I need to do for school and real life, so chill out.

Why are you fascinated with logos?

That's a good question. Logos just look really cool to me, seeing how they represent the company aesthetically while giving them their own style when done right. They also intrigue me by their history and why they were designed the way they were. So much so that I attempted to write a logo history book called Hislogory… which was straight-up just Logopedia articles drawn on a sketchbook. What a filthy plagiarist I was!

Thankfully, I wasn't obsessed enough to dump my embarrassing logo edits into the great sea of logo garbage for decades on end, but I can't say I'll stop being obsessed to a moderate degree.

What's your favorite character you created?

I'll have to say Benny Beck. He's just an adorable little chicken who got himself roped up with a problematic friend of his. I'm proud of his design and his name, and if I hear you mistake Becky for a woodpecker, I'll stare at you intensely with indescribable disappointment.

How do you stay motivated to draw?

Take whatever is in mind and run with it. Even if it's not well thought out, you'll improve upon it the next time it's in mind.

What advice would you give to anyone who wants to draw?

Try to draw something new every once in a while. If you believe you're not too familiar with something outside your comfort zone, try drawing it anyway. If you grow bored drawing the same characters over and over again, try to create new ones. Give your characters more characters to interact with, more situations to unfold, and more adventures to overcome.

Also, please preserve your art! You definitely don't have to share all your art to the public, but at least keep it in storage by any means necessary! If you firmly think that some of your old stuff is embarrassing and wrong, then tell yourself, or anyone who continues to see it, that it isn't who you are anymore. Your art preserves your growth as a human being and shows how far you've come, and throwing it out would be the same as denying your mistakes, so it's only right to preserve it.

Can you answer this question?

Don't be a smartass.