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Let's do a Q&A/TMI/AMA type of thing!
7 years ago
General
It's august again! That means?
First, my birthday *blows little party paper trumpet thing* and secondly, August also is the month where i usually do an ask me anything sort of thing, which is this very journal.
So if you ever had a question you wanted to ask, whether they be stupid, intriguing, enlightening, naughty or whatever else they may be then now is your chance!
First, my birthday *blows little party paper trumpet thing* and secondly, August also is the month where i usually do an ask me anything sort of thing, which is this very journal.
So if you ever had a question you wanted to ask, whether they be stupid, intriguing, enlightening, naughty or whatever else they may be then now is your chance!
From an in-the-moment viewpoint it was being declined by every art/graphics school i applied too. Like i knew i wanted to go in that direction, so to essentially being told that you're not good enough over and over is kinda shitty and just ended with me not having anything i could pursue job wise for a year or so. But nowadays that's not really important anymore since as i said, it ended up leading to me opening this FA account and with it of course my current livelyhood, so it's barely worth a shoulder shrug nowadays alongside the occasional late night in bed cringe attack about some of my work i used to try to apply with. :D
Well, that def sounds hard. i hardly can accept declines well.
Good for you though! I really enjoy your art and im glad furries again support another great artist.
Have you ever had an interaction with a stranger that you still think about from time to time?
Your stuff is really neat and inspiring Nomax! Hope to see a lot more from you, even if you change it up and work less in furry stuff in the future.
- Always stay on top of your finances. Make a buffer where you could survive with 0 income for at least 2-3 months, better yet 6 months. That way, if something happens you always got a security net to fall back on.
- consider your options. You don't have to start full time immediately. Back when i started here i did like a commission or regular picture every month or two next to my normal work. There even is the option to go part time, and then clock in a couple hours after work or on the days you aren't working. So work yourself up that way and build a fanbase.
- be professional. Sure having nice art is a good first step, but if you're a cunt to work with then your clients will come once and leave again. Explain things, keep them updated, be courteous etc. I've heard of so many artists that basically turned away long time commissioners they had due to being dicks once or twice. So make sure that you're always on top of that.
Like in the end it's no rocket science, you gotta build an audience, and that you do by uploading art regularly and of course uploading quality art. So never stop drawing and never stop striving to improve. Once you got commissions coming in then don't be a cock and deliver good work. People will come again if they enjoyed the experience and with it you'll build more of an audience. At some point you might think that you can earn 400€/$ a month, then perhaps 600 some time later. And so you sort of feel out what you think you can do, and then consider your next steps.
Thanks Nomax and I hope I can make it all work as well!
Other than that incredibly expected and boring answer i'd say the thing i enjoy the most is when a picture just sort of "clicks" for me. Like for example these two : https://www.furaffinity.net/full/26628907/ https://www.furaffinity.net/full/27727818/
I don't know exactly what it is that made them click but every now and then there are just pictures like them, where i don't really have to think very much and most strokes fall correctly into place without much fiddling involved. It's nice when that happens!
They do turn out well usually of course, but that's more of a side-effect.
V.
V.
It's probably a bit of a boring answer since it's very obvious to want to have a collaboration with one of your favourite artists, but eh, that's just how it is!
You have several favorite artists listed. Pick your top 3 and why!
Bernini, Frazetta, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Craig Mullins, Petar Meseldzija , Wyeth, Rembrandt, Bierstadt, Donato Giancola, Brom, C. D. Friedrich
They always kinda change around, and that list is probably 2 years old if not older at this point.
Craig Mullins has stayed at the top for a long time though, just because his approach to lighting is beyond incredibly, Vermeer is in the same category there so he gets an honourable mention.
Petar Meseldzija has incredibly brushwork along with a very vibrant colour application which i both really like.
and about Frank frazetta i really love how he managed handle especially the darker parts of his pictures, with many shadowy areas just being a simple flat shape for the most part, yet still reading incredibly well.
Those are probably the top3 more or less. It's incredibly difficult to really put them in order like this.
(Also, Happy Birthday! You are now that much closer to death! But don't worry. The more birthdays you have, the longer you live!)
Your style is one of the most recognizable imo, and honestly for me is like, #artgoals. Did your style just develop and evolve over time, or is it kind of how you always wanted it to look like?
And yeah, if you go back through my gallery you see that it was quite different in the beginning, and even now it tends to go through cycles of being a bit more polished, then a bit rougher, then a bit more polished again. So there is always some variation, but in general i feel fairly confident in where i am style wise, so i don't think that too much is gonna change there in the near future. So early on it was very much a sort of "seeing where it takes me" type of deal, but now it's more of a thing of me knowing what i'm after. Not entirely so but at least to a large degree.
Later on there are better anatomy books i feel, like the ones from Bridgman , but they aren't exactly suited for beginners i think.
Second, what did you study in order to transfer traditional painting to digital that it looks, well, traditional in a digital format?
In other words I'm intrigued, amazed and super interested in how you're able to paint digitally that it looks traditional??? also when did you start doing mastering the traditional look in digital? Urgh I don't know if I was clear on what I'm asking XD
Most of it really just came over time when i figured out more thoroughly what i wanted to achieve, and through the study of other artists work, and trying to figure out how they did it, dissecting their wok, copying their work and so on. Not sure if there is like a set path to learn that beyond that.
As for when, well you got a gallery with like 5 year worth of my stuff, so you can just go back decide for yourself when you think the moment was when i did it :D
And thanks ♥ :D
There are more than one question, I hope thats ok <<
-As i can see, you are also interested in looking at traditional art and fine art but do you also do traditional art by your self?
-If you have the chance of mastering another medium (oil, acrylic, animation, comic, sculpting and so on) what medium would you choose and why?
- I wanna build up a community over the time and I am curious if it helps to be social on more than on websites. At the moment I am active on Furaffinity and on Facebook (only in groups).
I tryed Instagram and Fur Amino but those sites are not really made for me I quess xD. Because of you I found Furry Network and I like the overall look of it (kinda reminds me of ArtStation) but I am not sure if I should try it. What are your experiences with the Furry Network and the people over there (in comparison to FurAffinity)?
best,
SaltPepper
- No and yes, Yes in that i do , no in that it's nothing really worth talking about. I prefer to sketch in traditional, but it's nothing more than that, quick sketches and scribbles. I dabbled in stuff here and there, but nothing really worth going through the trouble of uploading it.
- i really love watercolours in theory, but they suck big heavy balls in reality and i don't know how anyone ever gets anything done with them.
- Furrynetwork seems dead nowadays.I use FA,weasyl, sofurry, furrynetwork and twitter, and furry network i feel just has the lowest stats of them all. It was promising at the start, but just like most sites it ended up being abandoned, and abandoned harder than weasyl was after their launch and the big wave of users. But overall it can't hurt, i still post my stuff there regularly since it can never hurt to get more eyes on it, though i certainly did debate and will debate again in the future whether i should just leave FN be. As of right now , FA and twitter and reddit are the places to be, with sofurry and weasy being fine as well, and FN being an afterthought.
What is your favorite thing about cheesex? Why is cheesex the best sex? How do you plan to achieve more cheesex in the foreseeable future?
Do you ever feel that doing furry stuff, specially NSFW could affect your career if for example you planned to get into a big company in the future?
What kind of exercises would you recommend to a wanna be artist that is having a lot of trouble with the basic drawings skills.
As for question #1, yes i do. I don't necessarily have to, since usually you're fine just keeping the porn away from your other stuff, Art directors aren't stupid after all and keep these things apart if they're not thrown together in one portfolio. But i just end up going the extra mile by keeping them entirely seperated with very few connections between them.
As for #2. Don't really have any particular excercises i think, but generally i feel like deconstructing things works well in making me understand them. So for example focusing really on just one muscle and kinda figuring that one out on it's own. That's how it started to click for me in the beginning at least. Though of course everyone's brain is different, so the rate of success might vary. But in general learning and discovering just what type of learning works for you is also super important. Check out different art books for example and see which one resonates with you. Try books and videos and see again which one you can follow better etc.
what are you favorite dragon types?
Happy belated b'day wishes! Are you much of a gamer?