Hi! Would you like to introduce yourself?
Hello, I’m Beatrice, or “Shrimps on stilts” (my username). I’m a college student making art in my free time.
How would you explain Peetledoodle for someone who’s never seen it?
Peetledoodle is a Flash-animated webseries about growing up as an outsider. Inspired by the spontaneous & unfiltered nature of early-internet art, I hope to send a message about compassion and self-expression in the face of a sometimes unwelcoming world. The series is lightweight, episodic, and generally aimed at teens/young adults.
Who are Peetledoodle and Glitz and what do they mean to you? How do you relate to them?
In my eyes, Peetledoodle & Glitz are equal leads and the heart of the series. Peetledoodle is a 7-year-old child, unafraid to express their undying hope and optimism to the world, even if it seems naive to more jaded individuals like their older sibling Glitz, a depressive 16-year-old who has resigned themself to hiding and solitude out of fear of being perceived.
Even though they’re so different, they are both projections of different aspects of myself, and I think they can learn a lot from each other. As the series goes on, it should become clearer what I intend to say with them.
Do you have any prior experiences in animation or art? If so in what way?
I have been interested in animation for about as long as I’ve been able to put pen to paper. When I was in elementary school, I downloaded freeware animation programs and taught myself very rudimentary skills. By high school, I was posting more involved animations to a (now abandoned) small YouTube channel with around 300 subscribers. Of course, I was young, so they weren’t very good.
In the remaining years leading up to my currently available work, I spent a lot of time offline trying to perfect my art and land on a project that would showcase my full potential… but, those ambitions never went anywhere. That was how I learned that perfectionism can be an impossibility when you are only one artist.
Peetledoodle seem to take a lot of inspiration from early 2000’s internet. Do you have any specific things in mind that you find inspiration in? What does these things mean to you?
I grew up very online… A lot of my influence comes from the Flash games & animations that left an imprint on me. I’ve always found myself most connected to art when I can feel the vision of one passionate artist shining through, so low-budget, homemade works mean a lot to me, even (especially?) when they are crude and unpolished.
I think my preference for online entertainment over TV/movies as a child influenced this mindset.
Peetledoodle is, as of writing, comprised of 5 episodes of varying length. What is your ambitions with the project? How big do you want the show to be in scope?
My ambition for Peetledoodle has changed a lot. I’m sure this is evident from just watching the episodes… I started making the series with the goal of simply getting my ideas & feelings out there somehow, no matter how unrefined. Since time has gone on, and I finally have some public work under my belt, I’ve felt more comfortable getting a bit more ambitious — scripts are longer & more involved, I’ve brought on some close friends to help with certain aspects, and I have a firmer grasp on the themes & messaging I’ve wanted to convey.
That said, I don’t ever plan on the series becoming a crazy production. It will always be a personal project and hobby for me. I don’t know exactly how long it will go on for, or how much bigger any of the episodes will get; I just want to continue expressing my ideas.
Previously you have mentioned scrapping a beach themed episode that was partially completed. You’ve also mentioned scrapping other nameless episodes as well. How far into a production of an episode do you usually go before deciding if it fits? Why don’t they fit?
That’s right… For anyone unaware, the fourth episode was meant to be a 10-minute long vacation episode focused on Glitz.
It was around halfway finished when I decided to scrap it, which was, naturally, a very painful decision to make. I don’t like to scrap my own work, but it happened quite often due to my disorganized production methods…
I used to be more eager to jump into production with a loose script, which I’ve since learned is a bad idea, and now I make sure my concepts are fully realized and up to my perfectionist-standard before beginning animation. That, unfortunately, means longer time spent in each episode’s pre-production, but it also means nothing this substantial will be thrown away ever again!
From my understanding you do close to everything on Peetledoodle, do you have any particular favorite things to do on an episode? Is there anything that is less fun?
I most consistently enjoy animating & writing music for the episodes, because I can very easily settle into my element there. The only aspect of production I dislike is voice acting… I did the voice for Angelestia ShimmerStar in episode 5, whose lines took multiple sessions over 3 months to record because of throat strain.
Your latest episode seems to have done very well with over 100k views on YouTube, was this expected? What was your reaction?
Not expected at all! Before uploading that episode, each video was sitting at around or below 1K views. I really hoped the latest episode would get more attention because of the huge amount of time and effort I poured into it, but the reception it ended up getting totally blew me away! Since then, I’ve read hundreds of nice comments and received more fanart than I ever could have dreamed of.
I’m just extremely happy that so many people were able to resonate with such a personal artwork of mine.
Do you do anything outside of Peetledoodle?
My work on Peetledoodle is about as far as my online presence goes. I work on art for myself, my friends, and for school as well, but I usually don’t post about it. I also write a lot of music to the side; some of them end up used in Peetledoodle, but I’d like to release all the ones that don’t get used someday.
To go along with the series you’ve also made a very charming website filled with blogs and extras. How has the work on that gone? Are you experienced in web development?
I am not experienced in web development at all. I was learning about HTML and CSS as I worked on the website as it is right now, and I think it shows. I’m glad that people have been able to find charm and enjoyment in it nonetheless! I’ve been working on a completely rebuilt version of the website, slowly, over the course of this year, that I would like to have public sooner rather than later. (for everyone who’s been waiting for it since January… thank you for your patience, and I’m sorry)
Who else has helped making Peetledoodle? What did they do?
When Peetledoodle first began, it was pretty much entirely me behind everything. More recently, I’ve recieved the much-appreciated help of my close friends, who have helped with some writing, visual feedback, voice acting, and other miscellaneous things! Their contributions are listed in each episode’s credits. I would like to especially thank Natalie (@twigsyy) for consistently being my closest friend & consultant, and Lulu (@merrilune) for doing a fantastic job taking on the lead voice role of Peetledoodle!
How do you feel about the finished episodes?
I’m pretty happy with everything I’ve released so far. There are things I would go back and change, but as someone who has historically struggled to finish projects at all, I almost feel like it’s a miracle I’ve produced a webseries with 5 episodes at all. I view any flaws in the finished episodes as signs telegraphing what to spend extra attention on for next time.
Where can people find you online?
You can find links to all of my social medias on https://peetledoodle.net/about (as well as a doodle of myself for the summer).
Thank you for letting me write to you!
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