Every Now And Then I Stumble Upon Posts By Artists Discussing How To Improve At Drawing. Some Are Sharing

I needed this drag. Let’s change guys and not look back

Hey DG! Been following ur blog for a year now, and i love your positive support to this fandom :)

Do you think Apritello in 2012 was in any way abusive/toxic looking back not that the show is over?

I don’t think this myself at all, i just wanted to know your opinion on this claim because i trust your judgement.

Oh wow, thank you so much! Sorry I’m not really active on this blog anymore (though I’m still around and still compulsively check it lol). But I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my past posts! (My apologies for my lack of gifs in this post; my Apritello gifs aren't on this computer.) As for Apriltello being toxic or abusive, I wouldn’t label it as such. They certainly had their moments where each of them said or did the wrong thing, but they’re teenagers who have no idea what they’re doing, romantically or in life in general. But they learn and grow as individuals over the course of the show, and in doing so, they grow closer together.

Let’s start with Donnie. One of the major complaints I’d hear about him was that he once kinda wound up stalking April back in Season 2, which we all agree wasn’t healthy for either of them.

Now, disclaimer/PSA: Ladies, if a guy is following you around without your consent, do not try to rationalize it. You don’t know what’s going on in someone else’s head in real life. If someone is doing something that makes you uncomfortable, don’t gaslight yourself, or try to justify his behavior, or try to see it from his perspective (which you can’t be sure of anyway). Just get away and stay safe.

With Donnie, he’s a fictional character, so we, the audience, did get to see things from his perspective, and he wasn’t following her with creepy intentions. He wanted to talk to her and patch things up, but he wasn’t totally sure how to approach her, and used that time hopping from rooftop to rooftop trying to figure that out. What he should’ve done is figure that out from home while giving her space. But he’s a teenager who grew up in isolation from the world, not even watching as much TV as his brothers, and he's learning how to socialize for the first time. It doesn’t make his behavior correct, but it makes it easy to forgive so long as he learns and grows from it, which he did. Besides, there was an alien race after April. Keeping an eye on her wasn’t a completely terrible idea. He should’ve just gone about it differently.

Another complaint I’d hear about Donnie was that he still wanted to protect her, even after she’d learned to fight and control her powers, like in her fight with Shinigami, for example. To which I offered the counter-argument: what kind of jerk would Donnie be if he just stood there and didn’t care that the woman he supposedly loves was getting her butt handed to her? The writers needed to show Donnie distressed over April being hurt, but they also needed to have Raph hold him back, because it really was April’s fight. His desire to protect her wasn’t because he thought she was weak or incapable. It was simply because he loves her and hates to see her hurt. A third complaint I’d hear against Donnie was that his feelings persisted a long time. One blogger even referred to Mikey’s crushes on multiple girls as the most “realistic,” out of the turtles’ romances. It may be more relatable to that particular blogger, but it’s not unrealistic to have feelings for one person that persist a long time. I had a huge crush on a guy friend from 5th grade through 10th grade, and that crush resurfaced briefly during my senior year. Some feelings can’t be switched off at will, so what matters is how you handle those feelings while you have them. And while Donnie didn’t always know the best way to handle them, he was a teenager, perfectly entitled to his mistakes, and not toxic or abusive towards April.

Now it’s April’s turn. This teenage girl lost her mom under mysterious circumstances at a young age, then lost her dad (multiple times throughout the series) to an alien race that was ultimately after her so they could terraform the planet. She lived alone a lot of the time, and still had high school, extracurricular activities, and massive secrets to keep. That’s a lot for a minor to deal with. Now add having a big mutant turtle friend awkwardly crushing on you. Would any of us have known how to handle that at that age? Most of us didn’t even know how to handle crushes on fellow humans at that age. For much of the show’s earlier seasons, Donnie’s flirtations and near-confessions came at times when April was up to her eyeballs in chaos she didn’t know how to handle.

She got a lot of crud from fans in particular for kissing Donnie right after he’d told her he understood he was making her uncomfortable and he’d back off, especially because Donnie said after the kiss he understood nothing and he was even more confused than before.

As a fan, I love the kiss. As a grown-up, I gotta say it wasn’t the best decision she could’ve made in that moment. Actions may speak louder than words, but for someone like Donnie, words would’ve been a lot easier to understand. I think what went on in this scene was that April finally realized she did have feelings for Donnie. She wasn’t ready for a relationship with everything going on, but she didn’t want Donnie to give up on her just yet. At the start of the next episode, a still-confuzzled Donnie tried showing off in front of her again (“Check me out, April!”) and she ignored him and walked right on past, further confusing Donnie and irritating the fans. But I think April was trying to overcorrect. Maybe even she thought the kiss was going a little too far, and she was trying to make sure Donnie knew she didn’t want a relationship yet. April’s biggest crime as far as Apritello goes was just not verbally communicating with Donnie. She was young and it was a weird situation and she didn’t know how to handle it.

But after that moment, things did change between them. They really started getting closer as friends, which became a wonderful foundation for them. Donnie started to relax around her a little more, which helped her relax around him, and her feelings were allowed to develop without pressure. They care about each other, protect each other, fight for each other, and respect each other. Things were awkward between them at first, and they did inadvertently hurt each other here and there, but they just needed to grow up a little. I mean personally I don’t think anyone should even date before their prefrontal cortex reaches maturity at age 25, but I don’t think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could ever go on that long. lol

Emo Marinette and Toxinelle fanart, from Miraculous Paris Special episode. Find me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aulyasela.bsky.social

Wanna come here and say, thanks for the positive Apritello rep. Like this ships been dear to me since I was a kid in 2012 being introduced to TMNT. There's so much negativity towards it nowadays so to see someone unabashedly love it like i do is nice. Like doing another rewatch with my boyfriend I know the writers did the ship (and other plot points) dirty, so keep up the fantastic art!

I felt really happy when I read this!🥰🥰😍😍😃😄😄💕💕 Couldn't agree more with you 😃 I do enjoy and appreciate every single Apritello moments each seasons, the TMNT 2012 grew on me and this ship INSPIRE me a lot to create 😊 From the bottom of my heart, Apritello deserves more LOVE! Thank you for sending me this!💜💛💜💛💜

Short Donatello problems

(No, I do not know how height works so this is very much not to scale)

-> Commissions || My Kofi || Tip Jar :) <-

Yes, this is rough because I got busy and then forgot about it lol

Hey Heyyy~ you have no idea what a fan I am of yours! You draw so beautifully I just can't stop looking at your drawings

я вас люблю 🥹🥹🥹

thank u!

THIS REDRAW WAS SO LAZY I GENUINELY PREFER THE OLD ONE

im in that weird period of time where im lazy as shit and finding new ways of drawing ohymgodd SEDATE ME NOW

Dear TMNT

That little itty bitty teeny tiny piece of Apriltello we got in the season finale made me smile. I can’t be the only one who misses this… 

I don’t post much stuff like this because it’s a hater magnet, but… I’m not even gonna be shy about it anymore.

The show started off with it being a pretty major thing - it’s because April called Donnie’s attention that the whole story started really - and it was such a sweet relationship to see develop from a stupid crush to this great friendship, so cosy and full of trust, even if Donnie was still learning not to be stupid about it. And then we had a KISS - which in itself isn’t clear what it meant. And it just kinda… went a little silent there. I really really miss it.

And I really hope it wasn’t dropped because of some negative feedback from some people. Shipping aside, if none of it is really explored anymore -and it’s not even about Donnie ending up with April anymore, although I wish - that would be one major story arc just flushed down the drain, to be honest. 

I just wanted this out there. There’s a lot of people who actually enjoy the fluff -I think all the fanart speaks for itself haha- and we’re starving for some. *snif*

Hope you don’t mind that I tag you, peterdicicco XD

And if you guys agree, reblog, signal boost it by Darwin’s beard!

“If I told you about her, what would I say? That they lived happily ever after? I believe they did. That they were in love? That they remained in love? I’m sure that’s true. But when I think of her, of Elisa, the only thing that comes to mind is a poem, whispered by someone in love hundreds of years ago. ‘Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love. It humbles my heart. For you are everywhere.’”

Old stuff, but remember the time our Bayverse boys were in Ready Player One?

Plz tell me you also see Mikey owning it in the back

And fucking Battletoads