About Me

My name's Marvin, but I also go by Kolo. I'm an avid worldbuilder, writer, and artist, and have been whittling away at my personal paracosm since 2010. I live in western Pennsylvania with my parter of 5+ years, Lunila, who owns some of the OCs around this site and has written some profiles herself. I really like Animal Collective, Rain World, and online petsites.

I have almost no social media presence primarily for my peace of mind - the only socmed site I regularly check is Toyhouse, though I do participate in Artfight. Sorry if you wanted to follow me anywhere!

More about me is on this page.

The Creative Process

How do you come up with character designs?
The first step is always having a hole in the story you want to fill, or an idea for the character. Even loose ideas help, but it's hard to design a cohesive character without some concept of their personality, a gimmick, a power, or a backstory. When you have core concepts in mind, you can meaningfully play with them - using shape and color language to imply something, or to cleverly hide aspects of their personality or history, etc.

Secondly, I keep a fat folder of inspiration pictures on my harddrive. Does something I find online look cool? Into the inspiration folder it goes. When I sit down to design something, I'll arrange anywhere between three to six of these images to serve as a baseline, and combine them into a character soup.

Where do you get story ideas?
I mean I just literally sit there and generate ideas. If I read a story or watch a show or listen to a documentary I just start thinking about my OCs and worlds in that context. Listening to a lot of botched cave diving videos? Now I'm thinking about how Numbers worlds handle things like cave diving, how dangerous it is for them, novel solutions they may have due to the use of magic, etc. Sometimes these ideas are interesting enough that I want to write a story exploring them.

How do you draw so much?
I'm really used to drawing the anatomy for Numbers characters (13+ years of practice, lol) so it comes easily. I also draw primarily for relaxation so I don't stress about things looking perfect or even interesting. I'm not really anti-perfectionistic, but I'm not naturally hyper-perfectionistic either. Maybe more of a nice middle ground?

How do you draw so much in a single day?
Oh I'm just feral

FAQs

Q. Why is it called "Numbers Story"?
The first world I made, way back in 2010, had countries named "World 1" and "World 2" so on up to maybe 12. The name stuck, even if it's not relevant anymore.

Q. Is drawing your characters, animals, and worlds OK? Is NSFW or gore art okay?
By all means, so long as you send me the finished art! I would prefer you didn't draw anything that's not strictly SFW, though.

Q. Can I make my own Numbers worlds and characters?
Yes, but they wouldn't be considered "canon", and must be shared using the same license as what I make (it's linked in the footer).

Q. Are headcanons and shipping OK?
I mean yeah lol I'm not the thought police. I don't have any interest in uploading ship fanart of characters who aren't together onto the site, really, but that shouldn't stop you from privately having fun.

Q. Can I draw my OCs with yours?
I would prefer if you didn't, unless your OCs are also Numbers OCs. Even then, the art wouldn't be considered "canon".

Q. Can I repost your art/writing?
Yes, so long as there is clear and visible credit to my website and it's obvious the work isn't yours.

Q. Can I sell merch/stuff made of your OCs, or Numbers stuff I came up with?
No, and this is expressly forbidden by the license.

Q. What if someone is commissioning me to draw a Numbers OC? Is that okay?
That's fine as long as the commissioned art is not going to be used commercially.

Q. Do you do commissions?
No, I find doing art for other people really stressful, generally. I'm usually open for art trades, though - just contact me!

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A boundary that is really important to me - I would prefer if you didn't call anything on this site "content", nor call me a "content creator". I do not make "content" for "consumption", and you shouldn't either.

Credits & Disclaimers

All of the contents of this site are of my own creation and/or ownership. In places where I did not wholly create the content, I will indicate the source clearly.

If you are listed as an artist/designer for any of the pieces on here and would prefer a different source be provided, please contact me with:

• URLs of each and every one of the works you'd like updated
• Your preferred credit link (only one)

You can use the contact form on the main site, or email me: kittenkolo[at]gmail.com. I make an effort to maintain live links, but I don't take responsibility if you deleted your account somewhere and the link goes dead.

Resources

Layout constructed with the help of sadgrl's layout builder.
Magnific Popup script from dimsemenov.com.
Thumbnailer script from pqina.nl, with edits by me to work with GIFs.

Using My Work

You are permitted to use my creations (art, writing, lore) on this site insofar as the license (linked in the footer) permits. A proper attribution could simply be a link to this website, numbersstory.com. Just don't impersonate me.