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GENERAL

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Q: Do you do art full-time?

A: No, I do art on the side as a hobbyist.

My primary income is in Healthcare as a medical secretary at a specialized department.

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Q: Which do you like most, digital or traditional?

A: Digital because you can emulate any medium without the hassle of materials, paper, drying time etc. It´s very practical and portable.

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Q: What is art to you? What makes you keep drawing?

A: This is a very hard question! There are an infinite number of art styles to choose from when depicting a certain vision. That´s the amazing power of art, to see one essence through a million different lenses. I like that challenge.

Second, I like to draw to evoke. There is something anciently beautiful with taking a moment and depicting something from nothing, and it becomes a permanent memory you can look at and treasure.

 

When something moves me emotionally, I want to experience it, to record it, to feel it and I express that through my art.

 

As I´ve gotten older and wiser, I have come to realize for me art is about fundamentally feelings, expressing how I feel about things or the desire to create something beautiful or to preserve something that has personal meaning to me. 

It´s also a way for me to relax and cope with emotional trauma, something I´ve done since my childhood.

 

Thirdly, I do it purely for entertainment. There are many games and such I like and I like taking these amazing characters and universes giving my twist on them and how I think they would be as I interpret them uniquely. Or they have such a cool design I just have to draw it!  

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Q: What is the allure of furry art?

A: For me, the artistic challenge of blending human and animal anatomy and the narrative aspect of it as well as the different art styles. I also enjoy drawing all the gear like collars and such.

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Q: May I use your art for "X"?

A: Please consult my ToS for usage of my work.

 

Q: Why do you make adult art sometimes?

A: As an artist, I believe that tastefully done erotic art is a great challenge to make and just as valid as any other artform. I do not shy away from drawing genitalia or explicit acts as to me, it´s just as fun drawing as any other subject ;) 

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Q: What do you draw or not draw?

A: I draw most things, but there are ofcourse boundaries. Consult my ToS for a detailed overview.

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Q: What tools do you use? 

A: Check out the "Tools of the Trade" tab for a detailed overview. 

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COPYRIGHT

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Q: You watermark, can I remove it?

A: Under no circumstances may you remove it!

Removing/altering my watermark is highly offensive to me and if I find out you did, you will be blacklisted  and I will additionally warn other artists in the communities I move in to not accept your offers be it commissions or free requests/trades.

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Watermarks are like a fingerprint and I work hard on my arts, I ask that you respect that please.

Watermarks are there to protect my work from art thiefs, a seal of authenticity, promotion purposes and artist ID.  

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Q: Can I remove the info credits?

A: No. They, like my watermark, are there for a reason. I love making fanart. Fanart is art that features character designs that do not belong to me. Only the artwork belongs to me.

Credit needs to be given where it is due wether the design belongs to a company or a private client.

Please refer to my TOS to understand the "Grey area" of fanart copyright.

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Q: Your work reminds me about "X" artist style?

A: Iconography and visual/ art styles can´t be copyrighted by a single people or person, just how they uniquely choose to express it. Technique or style can be "borrowed" but concept or idea/interpretation cannot. See the difference?

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For example, a manga artist may be entitled to a copyright on his portrait of three women painted in his Shonen style. Any artist, however, may paint a picture of any subject in the Shonen style, including a portrait of three women, and not violate the manga artist´s  copyright so long as the second artist does not substantially copy his specific expression of his idea.

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EDUCATION

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Q: How long have you been drawing?

A: I´ve been drawing for roughly over 10+ years now. I´ll probably never stop, art is a lifelong pursuit!

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Q: Did you go to art school?

   A: No, I´m mostly autodidactic but have supplemented my education with various professional and specialized art courses and a foundation programme in traditional drawing and painting.

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Q:How did you learn to draw?

A: Lots of experimentation combined with diligent practice, failures, online tutorials and art education. Art is a constant learning process.

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Q: What do you recommend studying?

A: Art is as vast as the sky, if I´d started again, I´d say a school or fundamentals course, private mentorship is really the best way to begin. 

That will save years from your back as you have professional guidance.

After "school" you have to be able to yourself, discover and learn things and become selfreliant without reliance on a mentor. 

No teacher can teach everything there is. 

Art is a lifelong pursuit and no single artist can know everything there is about art. 

You have to pick and choose what parts you want to focus on more after the fundamentals and practice away your weak areas lifelong if you´re serious. 

A mentor can show the way and some tips but it´s up to you to make it all work and develop yourself. Critiques are the best way to also improve fast.

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Fundamentals is what´s it all goes back to.

Proportion, line, anatomy, color theory, light theory, composition, 3D forms, composition, perspective, the list is endless. 

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If you learn construction techniques, you will progress alot faster!

Copying blindly won´t do your skills any good, understand what, how, why something is the way it is and make studies "on the job" to conquer difficulties while working. 

Do that for like 2 years every day for atleast 4 hours or more and you will skyrocket! Keep doing it

every day and you will become extremely proficient. Revise the fundamentals often even if you´re proficient or professional. 

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Lastly, remember, art is about having fun expressing whatever you like. 

Try not to make it a chore, and try instead to have fun and not take it too seriously ;)

You have plenty of time to improve...

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Q:Your styles seem very varied, why is this?

A: Im in the process of finding my "own" artstyle but I love trying new things, so mostly that. Variety is the spice of life as they say. It is also beneficial to be able to adapt to the styles fans like.

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Q: Which of your educations helped the most to learn art?

A: All my educations has helped in shaping the artist I am today.

You know, art is an endless pursuit,

nobody but yourself can make it in the  end despite classes or the best teacher. 

The ability to self-teach and self-critique is vital!

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Having said that, dynamic sketching and the Solo Artist Curriculum really has proved to be a 

gamechanger in my artistic development at its later stage. 

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Q: What does a mangaka apprentice learn?

A: During my apprenticeships I learnt all the steps to make a manga professionally,

sketching, inking, drawing outfits, creating characters, stories, rough draft etc just like how pros learn in the

manga school or physical apprenticeship in Japan.

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Q: How did you get your manga training from a pro mangaka?

A: I contacted her, she offered private lessons in English so I just had to apply as that

is truly one in a million chance to learn from a pro and not having to go to actual

manga school or Japan as it is not possible for me. 

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Q: Which manga artstyles did you learn?

A: Kemono style, Shoujo, Shonen, general styles. Once I learnt the mangaka approach

to drawing, the why and how, it makes me possible to tackle almost any manga style.

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ART MAKING  PROCESS

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Q: How exactly do you make your semi-real & CG art?

A: I use bits of phototexture and photomanipulation techniques together with photobashing and paintover layers. This does not mean "I pick random photos and stitch them together". I use the photos as textures or a ground but they are the icing on the cake, the majority is painted. It´s the same techniques concept artists use in the videogame industry.

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Q: Why photo/phototextures? Why not paint textures yourself, isn´t that "cheating"?

A: It´s not cheating as I still have to use all my art knowledge to make it all fit in and it is a legit technique that is used by concept artists and even older artists have used such, like Picasso.

Artists have used various tricks throughout the ages to work smart.

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People in general think artmaking should be all magical and mysterious, but in reality time is of the essence and clients want superior, highly detailed art NOW.

Photos are a means to an end but in no way diminishes the effort an artist has to make to create work. On a deadline, photos speed-up the process but is not a crutch. A good artist is able to blend phototextures into the work so it doesn´t even look like the photo anymore.

Painting texture by hand can take an extremely long time and as someone who doesn´t have that time luxary, I use phototexture derived from free sources or buy photosets to use sometimes.

Being honest about this technique is key.

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Q: Could you critique my work?

A: I´m flattered, but I cannot, I simply do not have the time to do so. 

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Q: Any recommendations for geometric design? 

A: Do invest in good tools here if you´re doing this traditonally. Get a METAL compass pen holder and Steadtler compass or you´ll be frustrated that the compass keeps slipping and you lose accuracy.  

 

As instruction is hard to come by, best bet is either courses or youtube, Patreon. 

 

Start with mandalas. If you´re feeling bold, do islamic geometry but be warned that that is math and not as freeform as mandalas. 

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If you really want to learn islamic geometry, stay away from the western method (polygon). I can only recommend Mohamed Aljanabi´s geometric islam school that is traditional way. He has online classes. If I could do math  I´d take his class alas I can´t so mandalas for me ;)

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Viking knotwork is almost impossible to find instruction for. Celtic knotwork is alot more common. Best bet is personal mentorship! 

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Q:How long did it take for you to become very good/advanced with digital drawing/painting? 

A: When I got my conceptart education & mentorship and supplemented it all with Gumroad tutorials. Those taught me stuff I´d never figured out or taken years to discover on my own. And loads of practice. Daily working and evaluting, once you get past beginner, it gets harder to make giant leaps. You have to push yourself alot harder. Sketching daily is mandatory.

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Q: How many layers do you use?

A: I try to use as few layers as possible for various reasons, I separate them into sketch, lineart, base colors, shading & effects. I usually correct stuff using the lasso marquee tool and re-painting/layer blending styles rather than making uneccessary new layers for every object in a scene.

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Q: Do you make any speedpaint videos?

A: In the future I might...

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Q: How do you choose your color scheme? What's the best way to study lighting so that I know how to paint an imaginary scene?

A: I go after mostly the lightning/time of day or the feeling I want to convey to help me decide my scheme. Depends if it is a more realistic art or fantasy art which colors I choose.

Color theory is your friend here. I go after a system of warm shadows, cool lights or cool shadows, warm lights. Mixing cool colors with cool colors and warm colors with warm colors.

To help paint lightning in an imaginary scene, I imagine the scene as objects/simple geometry. I use 3D tools and image references to help me estimate how lights would fall on characters/background.

 

The best way is to make a few studies on the type of light you´re thinking of doing so you get a bit familiar with how it works and why before doing the final illustration. 

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