Lost? Confused? Hungry?

 

Keep an eye out for us. We're here to help you!

 

You've found the help page. Here's where we hope to make anything not immediately obvious a little more understandable. In addition to what's on this page, you can also find specific hints scattered around the site from our helpful pea people as you can see to the right.

This help page is divided into the following sections:

• Glossary
• Getting Around
• Image Types
• Found Something You Like?
• Understanding RSS

Glossary

Words

• Lof /lɔf/ (listen )
  -noun 1. a happy, joyful love, or item which expresses such: It's lof! 2. a term of endearment toward whom lof is felt: Hi lof!
  -verb 1. the expression of lof: I are lof you!
• Nom /nɔm/ (listen )
  -verb 1. to eat: What would you like to nom for dinner?
  -noun 1. an item or portion of food: Do you want this nom?
  -adjective 1. tasting good: Mmm, this pie is so nommy!
  -interjection 1. an exclamation made when eating or thinking about eating: Nom nom nom.
• Oh! /oʊ/ (listen )
  -interjection 1. an exclamation of happy surprise: Oh! A blue pen!
• Ohmamo /oʊma:moʊ/ (listen )
  -interjection 1. a greeting: Ohmamo! 2. a call for attention: Ohmamo? 3. a nonsensical response: Ohmamo.

Characters

• Grumpy Bunny
  Grumpy Bunny is a character first drawn by cheese in October 2010, seen standing with hands on hips above a munched upon carrot. Grumpy Bunny has since been redrawn as a vector image, and will make some appearances in upcoming works. To see more, check out the Grumpy Bunny tag.
• Hideous Mim
  Hideous Mim first appeared on the bottom of a sort of 'wish-list' note to Josh that was intended to emulate a letter to Santa. The note childishly requests Freddo frogs and lolly bananas, and includes a particularly hideous self-portrait - hence the birth of Hideous Mim. Unfazed by (or ignorant of) her obvious hideousness, she whole-heartedly and single-mindedly pursues her interests, despite what anyone else may think. To see more, check out the Hideous Mim tag.
• Lof Bees
  The first Lof Bee arrived in a picture drawn by mim in April 2009 after her first trip with Josh to 'the sunset spot' where they saw a bee exploring a flower. Two months later, in June, the bee was back, and this time it brought friends. Hi Bees, (featuring the two Lof Bees paired for the first time) depicts a bee couple meeting and connecting with a human couple (who later evolved into the Lof People). The Lof Bees have since gone on to often accompany/guide the Lof People on their adventures. To see more, check out the Lof Bees tag.
• Lof People
  The Lof People, first featured in Hi Bees embody a sense of joy and wonder as they explore the world around them. In a way, it is companionship that allows them to experience the world afresh. Accompanied / guided by the two lof bees, they encounter a myriad of environments, animals, and new friends. Whether or not the world they inhabit is exactly as shown in the images is ambiguous; that could be the case, or it may reflect the view of the Lof People themselves - a world seen through lof-coloured-glasses. It's up to the viewer to decide ^_~
  To see more, check out the Lof People tag.
• Loftopus
  A somewhat shy and lonely fellow, the Loftopus has a lot of love to give, but has yet to meet someone he can share it with. Red tentacles have been spotted hiding shyly off to the side of the action in several pictures, but slowly the Loftopus seems to be gaining the courage to try new things, and meet new people. Most likely, we'll be seeing a lot more of him in times to come. To see more, check out the Loftopus tag.
• Pea People
  First appearing in Snail Majesty, the Pea People show a silly, cute view of the world and are featured in the site's banners. You can also spot them around the site offering helpful tips. To see more, check out the Pea People tag, and the Two Lof Peas comic.
• Scribble People
  The Scribble People are constantly dancing, floating, happy figures who don't really get up to much other than just being their own, cheerful selves. Wearing her heart on her sleeve (or rather, on her tummy), the first scribble person appeared in June 2010 to tell us that warm things make her tummy happy. To see more, check out the Scribble People tag.
• Sprinkles
  Much like the Lof People, Sprinkles embodies an excitement and wonder at meeting the world. However, Sprinkles demonstrates an added element of a childish innocence that allows her to befriend any and every object that crosses her path. In a way she is both a daughter to and combination of the Lof People, in that she follows in their adventurous footsteps, but needs no guide but her own imagination. To see more, check out the Sprinkles tag.

Themes

• Princess Hat
  The princess hat symbolises feeling special, or "like a princess", sometimes in answer to the question "What would make you feel like a princess?" The origins of the princess hat can be found in Princess 1 and Princess 2. To see more, check out the princess tag.

Getting Around

You can use the tabs at the top of the page to navigate to each section described below. The tabs will also show a little summary of newly added items.

To help you keep track of updates, new content in each section will normally be highlighted by an exclamation mark (this replaces the Updates page in case you're wondering where that's gone).

• Home - Contains links to featured content
  What you can do here:

  • Jump straight to the good stuff!
  • View the artwork of the day.
• Artwork - Shows a list of artwork
  What you can do here:

  • Browse, sort and search artwork in a gallery view.
  • Browse and sort artwork by tags.
  • View details of a particular piece of art.
  • "Love" a particular piece of art (by clicing the heart icon ).
• Comics - Shows a list of comics and stories
  What you can do here:

  • View a list of comics and stories.
  • View a particular comic's page index.
  • Read a specific comic page.
  • "Love" a comic page (by clicing the heart icon ).
• Games - Shows a list of games
  What you can do here:

  • Browse a list of games.
• Blog - Shows a list of blog posts
  What you can do here:

  • Browse and sort a list of blog posts.
  • Browse and sort blog posts by tags.
  • Read a blog post.
• About - Information about the website and its creators
  What you can do here:

  • Read about our artists.
  • Read about some of the technologies the site uses.
• Shop - Shows all of the designs we have made available to buy
  What you can do here:

  • Jump to a collection on our RedBubble store.
  • Jump to a specific design on our RedBubble store.
  • View a design's artwork page on twolofbees.com.
• Help - This page
  What you can do here:

  • Learn about our site's layout.
  • Find out what you can do with stuff you like.
  • Read a glossary of some of our obscure terms and themes.

Image Types

There are several different image types you can show and hide when browsing artwork. Here is a brief description of each in case you're unsure. Note that each of the image type name links below takes you to the on the Artwork page with only that image type visible.

• Comic - Images of this type are actually pages of existing comics.
• Finished - Finished images are polished pieces of standalone artwork.
• Sketch - Sketches are standalone pieces of artwork that aren't quite as finished or polished as a 'Finished' piece.
• Work In Progress - WIP images are designs or early drafts that are intended to be developed into 'Finished' artwork.
• Photo - Photos are generally images of things we haven't drawn, but may also include non-2D artwork such as dioramas.
• Note - Note is a special image type for the pages of the Little Lof Notes comic.
• Scribble - Scribble is a special image type for the pages of the Scribbles comic.

Found Something You Like?

• You can click the "love" button on any piece of artwork or comic page! The most loved artwork gets featured on the home page.
• You can send us email to tell us what you think (we like getting mail)!
• You can purchase it if it's listed on our Shop page! If it isn't, you can let us know and we'll look into making it available.
• You can totally share it with your friends by posting on MySpace, Facebook, your favourite instant messaging service, email, your own blog, public notice boards, willing people's foreheads, milk cartons, etc.! Look for the shortcut links like the ones below:

We only ask that if you download any of the images from the site, you let anyone you show it to know where it came from.

Understanding RSS

RSS is a technology that allows you to keep track of updates to a website without having to manually visit it all the time and without the site emailing you when changes happen.

This technology is sometimes called "live bookmarks", and most web browsers display RSS feeds alongside regular bookmarks. The difference is that a "live bookmark" will behave like a dropdown menu that contains all of the recently updated stuff that you can click on to go straight there. Neat?

"But wait," we hear you say. "That doesn't help me know when you've updated your site. Now instead of clicking on a bookmark to go to twolofbees.com, I have to click something that looks like a bookmark and select the new stuff from a menu."

You can do more with RSS feeds than add them to your list of bookmarks, and there are a lot of other things that can read and understand RSS beyond your web browser. A lot of email programs can subscribe to RSS feeds, as can some desktop widgets, and even some websites (which can probably start to make things confusing).

Our personal choice for making RSS feeds more visible to us, is to use RSS Ticker to allow RSS feeds to scroll across the top of our browser windows as soon as there are new updates. Note that this is only compatible with the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Alternatively, if you use Mozilla Thunderbird for your email, you can add an RSS feed so that it will show up like a mail account, with each new update showing as a separate message.

If you get stuck, you can email us and we can try to talk you through.