Today we’d like to introduce you to Skippie Fritz.
Hi Skippie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Well, I was born at a young age, and it all spiraled from there.
Seriously though, growing up homeschooled in a sibling-filled house, I didn’t have a lot of things to myself. I didn’t really have any extra-curriculars asides from sports (which I hated), so art was my outlet. Something I could do by myself and for myself.
I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember, I was a very opinionated and creative child, and art allowed me to express myself in ways I couldn’t otherwise.
I’ve always felt like I have to draw, like I have so many ideas and feelings and thoughts that if I didn’t get them out I’d erupt like Vesuvius and end up Pompeii-ing everyone.
The internet and digital art especially are where I found my calling, I remember so vividly seeing fanart being like “Wait!! You can do that??”
I created fanart, fan comics, and blatant rip-offs of things I loved from as early as 6 years old. I remember there was this let’s play channel with these two characters, Johnny Toast and Johnny Ghost, that I both copied and made fanart of.
I made my own original ocs (don’t steal) called Ronnie and Johnny, two red-headed twins who went around solving mysteries. (I was really obsessed with red hair as a child for some reason) and also made a fan comic where Johnny Toast and Johnny Ghost fell in love and kissed.
I was very obviously gay as a child, I don’t remember exactly when gay marriage was legalized, but I remember thinking that being gay or trans was just as natural as being straight and cis from a very young age. I think queer readings of characters being both the norm and celebrated in fandoms really helped me with that. As well as growing up in a time where queer characters being in media was normal, even if it wasn’t relevant to the story. Characters can just be gay and it’s no big deal; shout out to Steven Universe!
There are no rules when it comes to art, but drawing your own characters and making them gay was scary, but seeing two pre-existing characters and being like “ah yes, the subtext shows that they’re clearly gay and in love” was just good media literacy! *I* didn’t make them gay, the creators did!
I did have queer ocs, but I didn’t draw or post about them as much. Yes, I was on DeviantArt unsupervised at a very young age, which probably did warp me some.
I still love making gay fanart, alongside my own gay characters.
Yeah, it’s probably ‘unrealistic’ that so many of my ocs are queer, but so what? It’s my art, I can do what I want!
That’s the lesson I want people to take away from this, life is hard, take joy where you can.
Write that fanfiction! Make 70 million lesbian ocs! Make all your favs trans and asexual! Be as self-indulgent as you want to be, it’s your art, and if someone doesn’t like it, then they can make their own art.
If you need a justification to create messy, personal, or self-indulgent art, your happiness is reason enough.
Life’s short, be cringe :)!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’m very privileged to have always had parents who supported my artistic career, as well as a home and easy access to food and clean water, but I have had my challenges along the way. Sometimes from outside forces, sometimes from myself, though usually it was a bit of both.
I had undiagnosed chronic pain, and when I would say I was in pain during the aforementioned sports I hated, or just randomly, it was chalked up to me being a ‘chubby kid’ which eventually lead to a really bad eating disorder.
Also I had no in person friends for several years, which really sucked. Thanks, Covid!
Getting comfortable with the word fat, drawing diverse bodies, and not moralizing food really helped me recover.
To those out there who struggled like I did, there is no meal in the world that is as unhealthy for you as an eating disorder! You don’t have to only eat ‘healthy foods’, you’re not a bad person for preferring cookies to salad.
I’ve never weighed more than I have currently, and I’ve genuinely never had more confidence in my body. I’m now comfortably mid-sized, plus don’t get nearly as dysphoric gender-wise as I used to!
There’s always hope! Things to get better! Don’t listen to whoever tells you not to eat when you’re hungry, even if it’s yourself, that’s the Devil!! And not a sexy one!!
And to those out there who have no irls, you will find them. It really sucks right now, I know, but it will happen.
You will find your people, I don’t know when, honestly it me like multiple years, but it did happen for me eventually. If it can happen for me, it can happen for you.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in digital illustration and comics. I’m currently working on a webcomic adaptation of the Model Millionaire (by Oscar Wilde) and would love to make original comics someday too!
I don’t know what I’m known for, honestly. Like, I know my art is good, and I know intellectually I have thousands of followers, but I don’t know what my legacy will be. I’d love to make a movie some day, I’d also love to make animated shorts for Adult Swim or Toon Out on Dropout tv, or maybe just on Youtube, but for now, I’m really not sure.
I’m very proud of the diversity in my art. Not just in how I can draw different races, genders, ethnicities etc, but in how different I can make people look. Like, I don’t struggle with same face or same body syndrome at all, which is uncommon for artists. I definitely have patterns in my characters, I love drawing hooked noses and thick brows and lips, but I really love how different I can make my characters look, while also making it seem like they belong to the same universe. And for when I draw fanart, I think I’m good at capturing what characters have in canon that are usually erased in fanworks I’m not afraid to draw double chins, eye-bags, or crooked teeth.
I think that’s why people are drawn to my art, no pun intended.
What does success mean to you?
Very loaded question, haha, but I think to me, success means hard work paying off, like, it means that things that used to be difficult are easier cause of the time you put in.
Pricing:
- Headshot/Profile pic commission: 15$ for flat colors, 20$ for basic shading, 30$ for full rendering
- Waist up commission: 25$ for flat colors, 30$ for basic shading, 35 for full rendering
- Full body commission: 30$ for flat colors, 35$ for basic shading, 50 for full rendering
- Each additional character is half the price of the original commission
- DM or email me skippiefritz@gmail for more info!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skippiefritz/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@skippiefritz
- Other: https://bsky.app/profile/skippiefritz.bsky.social
