Learn about me in excruciating detail!

A cartoon drawing of IRL Kris.

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…

Frequently asked questions!

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 that point, it would be hard to go back and identify myself as something else.

Wait, what about 'pudsp?'

Oh, that's a username I came up with by myself. It was the name of my former YouTube archive back in 2021-2024. I don't know what I'll do with it at the moment, but I'll figure something out.

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 MakerMarch 2018-July 2018, April 2019-June 2020
Microsoft PaintMarch-December 2018
Panzoid Clipmaker 2June 2018-present (3D graphics)
October 2018-May 2022 (2D animation)
AudacityOctober 2018-present
Paint.netOctober 2018-2023 (image editing)
December 2018-April 2019 (drawing)
MediBang PaintApril 2019-November 2022
ShotcutDecember 2020-present
Adobe PhotoshopAugust 2022-present
Adobe AnimateDecember 2022-pending
FireAlpacaJuly 2023, July 2024-present

What hardware do you use?

As of 2022, I draw with a UGEE M708 graphic tablet, I use my HP ProDesk 600 G2 desktop, and I (professionally) record with a Blue Yeti microphone.

In the past, I used a dinky blue HP Stream and drew with the 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 the 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 used a Huion Inspiroy H1060P to draw until Christmas of 2022, when I got the M708 after using one at my 10th grade Photoshop class.

Wait, you used to draw with a touchpad!?

Yes, 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 enough with a graphics tablet. 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.

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 so obsessed that I dumped 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 your mind and run with it.

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.