Anya Kondratyeva: What is Pokemagma and how did you guys get started?

Jun (ChooChoBoss): It's a monthly event we host on Magma, which usually lasts one full weekend or a little longer. It started as my personal project in 2022. After that, I've been hosting one event each month until the beginning of this year, when we formed this Magma team. 

BeastKonoha: Yeah, I think everyone here met on Jun’s session. I actually attended from the very first session, when Jun was still hosting on their personal account and it was a small, adorable meeting for Pokemon fans to draw together. Month after month, it was growing more and more. So this year, we established a team.

Aur0raAura: We’re helping with the event because we want to create not only a safe space but also a fun place for people to express their love for the franchise that brought us together.

doodlejoltik: Going back to what Pokemagma is, we have more heavily-themed sessions that take a lot of planning to make them come to life. But we also have things that are more low-key. On alternate months, we just draw together. Those doodle sessions are a really nice way for people to either make stuff together or just vibe together with our shared interests.

You have such a global team and people coming to your sessions from all around the world. So how do you coordinate with all of those people attending?

Jun: Because we have such a wide range of time zones, we allow people to reserve spaces in the canvases so they can come and fill them in later on. We’ll keep the event open and running through the whole weekend.

BeastKonoha: We aren’t the only ones who are moderating; we also have other people who help us when we go to sleep, for example. It's a very friendly and supportive group who is always welcoming to other people if they are new, or if they need help. 

doodlejoltik: So we’re the Magma preparation team that's doing things around the scenes, but pretty much everyone who's a regular on the session is pretty reliable and would be able to coordinate between themselves so that the canvas is used up effectively. And again, everyone is really so willing to welcome new people on and show them the ropes.

Anya Kondratyeva: That's awesome. I've never heard of someone reserving space on the canvas, but I think that's really smart. 

BeastKonoha: Yeah, we know that people are in so many different time zones and may not be able to join when the event starts. But we want to make sure that everyone would have a chance to at least have their own space on the canvas. Everyone actually works pretty well with that system and respects and understands if someone is saving a space on the canvas.

Why did you decide to use Magma as your drawing platform?

Aur0raAura: Honestly, as someone who has used various drawing platforms, I'm very impressed with the amount of features in Magma. It gives us so many ways to coordinate with participants, especially on that big comic collab that we did. It was so exciting to see the amount of people who used every single tool in the program to bring that story to life. 

BeastKonoha: It's amazing that Magma is a place where a lot of people can draw together. I was in various fandoms for years and Magma let me feel that joy of drawing together with other people for the first time. 

For example, with our comic collab, technically people could draw their panels separately and just send them to us. But because we were all drawing together, the result was much, much better. It would be completely different if people didn't cooperate with each other. 

We had a big session where we were brainstorming ideas. Later we went to work on the panels and decided who would draw what, what kind of jokes we should have, and what characters we should introduce. People were really active and involved in all of that. 

Sharing that joy, that happy feeling of seeing someone drawing and finishing their work, feels much deeper than just receiving likes on social media. This is basically what fandom is about: sharing joy with other people.

How do you encourage artists to collaborate on the canvas?

Jun: We are very welcoming to everyone who joins our sessions. We inform people one week beforehand roughly about the topic and what we’re looking for people to contribute.

BeastKonoha: When our team prepares a session each month, we’re always thinking about how to make people want to participate. For example, in the comic session that we did last month, we prepared mini comics challenges to encourage people to create their own comic strips. If you just give artists a blank canvas, no one would know what to do and they would just doodle random stuff. But because we have prepared backgrounds with prepared challenges, we are actually encouraging people to collaborate. 

On the canvas, people just spontaneously draw together. Someone might start drawing one character, then someone joins next to them, and they draw their characters interacting with each other. We never say, “You should work together, you should draw together.” People do that naturally, just because we could give them space for that.

Do you have any advice for people hoping to start their own community events in Magma?

Jun: This is run with passion, so people need to be willing to invest time into this. But the most important thing we say is that people should have fun, both the participants and the team who arranges the event.

BeastKonoha: Also, I would add that it's good to gather people that will be able to moderate. In every community you need to make sure that everyone will have fun, everyone will be safe, and everyone will get support. For example, it was important for us to gather people who know how Magma works from the technical side. I won't say how many times we had to deal with people who accidentally stole someone's layer!

In terms of organizing, get a group of people who are pretty flexible. By that, I mean if someone doesn't have time because of work or some personal problems, it's good to have people who would be able to say, “No problem. We can help you, please focus on what you have to do.” It’s important to have that group of people who support each other. 

doodlejoltik: If you want to start hosting these events, you don't have to start big. These all started off as personal sessions that just grew more and more over time. We now have a full team, we have this whole pipeline and we plan things up to a year in advance. But you don't need to do all that at first. Just gather some close friends and just start off drawing together. As long as you keep that passion going it can grow into something really big and amazing.

How did you spread the word about Pokemagma?

Jun: I started advertising it on my Twitter page, where I was already sharing my art stuff. So I would invite my art mutuals and followers to join these sessions. When we expanded to Pokemagma, we set up separate Twitter, Tumblr, and Bluesky accounts. We would advertise these events and send the event announcements one week beforehand. Afterwards, we’d share the results.

doodlejoltik: I do know that people who join and have a good time invite their other artist friends to join. I know I've done that a lot. So I think it's a two-fold thing of the actual advertising on social media and then it's also that natural growth through people talking about it. 

Jun: I would like to add that we don't require people to draw. We all always tell people that they can come and hang out on the chat or just watch other people draw and spend time together. If they don't feel comfortable drawing in a public space, we still encourage people to join in, even if they are not our artists themselves or if they don't have the energy to draw.

Aur0raAura: Definitely. Most importantly, we do accept people of all skill levels. Even if you're just starting off drawing, or you've been drawing for years, you are very much welcome to join us. We are not here expecting anything. The greatness is in our cooperation and celebrating and having fun with the things that we are passionate about. I feel that's the core principle of art.

doodlejoltik: Yeah, and we make stuff that could almost look professional. But we also make really silly doodles that everyone collabs on and adds to the joke, and that in itself is beautiful. 

Do you have any memorable stories or moments that you'd like to share from your time of hosting these events?

Aur0raAura: Every now and then we do sessions that are sorta like an art lesson in which people can hone their art skills. I got the chance to host one this year by helping people with tips on how to improve with their shading. It was so memorable and exciting to stream in front of people for the first time in a long time. 

BeastKonoha: During my very first session when I prepared the background, I was very nervous about people's feedback because it was my first time drawing backgrounds at all. People not only liked it, but they were having fun drawing their favorite characters. So it was also a very emotional session for me. But overall, I love the whole experience of talking with people, sharing jokes, having very heated discussions about the fandom, or having deep emotional talks. I really love how Jun started this whole beautiful community here.

Waffle: Yeah, I think the most memorable thing for me has been forming this group and being with friends. Every session is memorable in its own way. 

Jun: I think the most memorable one for me was the very first session. I wanted to come up with a fun way to get to know my followers and my art mutuals. So I came up with this live interaction concept where I drew a character in the middle of the canvas and I role-played this character. The other people could draw around him and I would react in real time. It was the most intense session I ever had, but also the amount of excitement I got from that has carried on all the way to this day.

Finally, what is your favorite Pokemon?

Jun: Noivern.

Aur0raAura: Lucario

BeastKonoha: Sirfetch’d

Waffle: Serperior

doodlejoltik: Joltik

Skyarbor: Grovyle

Thank you to the entire Pokemagma team for hosting these amazing events: Jun (ChooChooboss), Aur0raAura, BeastKonoha, Waffle, Doodlejoltik, Skyarbor, and Suvi. To learn more about Pokemagma and join their next drawing sessions, follow them on X or Tumblr!