How did you get started with art?
Any tips/inspiration?

I just enjoyed doing it. Like back when deviantart was all the rage in the art community and it wasn't just a strange shitshow of r34 fetishes plastered everywhere and people didn't just drop random llamas on you in the hopes of getting useless llamas back etc. I just ended up seeing that people had fun drawing cool dragons, had little communities and whatnot and had my interest spurred through that.

As for tips, nothing really special, i mean learning fundamentals and all that is a pretty good bet that's sure to make you improve.

What inspired you to paint anthropomorphic characters in such a realistic style? And if I can ask, how do you pick your colors?

It's just what i like doing. Not sure if there is a specific reason for it beyond that it's what i enjoy and want to become better at.
As for colours, well i usually try to think of them relative to one another. So let's say i've got a towel somewhere and a shadow is cast over it, then i'll think about how that colour would behave relative to the lit one. Would it be cooler or warmer? would of course be darker but how much darker? And the environment the towel would be in would of course provide answers to that. So it being under an open sky would make it cooler for example, while if the towel is lit by light coming through a window the shadow would most likely be warmer.

When you work traditionally, do you have any favorite mediums or tools? Or anything you ever wanted to try? :)

i've recently picked up watercolours because i really like the effects you can get with them. Not sure i would say that i enjoy handling them necessarily because they are just really finicky still for me, but it's still the medium i enjoy the most probably despite that.

Amongst all of your art pieces, which one is your favourite?

I don't think i have one honestly. I enjoy plenty of my pictures in their own ways or enjoy them because of certain parts, so it's impossible to really pin down one single one as "the best". It's just a cloud of probably a dozen pictures that all have something i feel i did well.

The recent Polar expedition, Onsen, TAARP, Choch 'n Cherry, Commanche wolf just to name a few that come to mind right now.

What's the story behind your character/Sona, if he has one?

Also, if it's okay to ask another, I get this historical vibe from him. Do you like historical timey paintings?

In theory he has one, but i've just not had the time or muse to really define it properly and make actual decisions. So he's in a weird quantum state where details will only be defined once i start looking properly :')

And yes, historical paintings, or rather portraying something with a historically accurate feeling is really fun for me. Not necessarily that it's like 100% accurate but just enough that it feels like something that might have happened at that time or that place. Basically an artistic sense of place rather than full accuracy.

You should flesh him out sometime! It'd be nice to see more of your character anyhow.

Ah, I see! I got the impression you liked historical stuffs from your character's motif and other things like your daguerreotype portrait. Either way, fantastic work!

Yeah i really would love to. But it's always hard to put it all under the umbrella with work going on. And thank you very much :)

I have just sent mine Q's to your Note.
Thank you, Nomax.

Will give it a read later!

Is there a favourite species you love to draw? Do you prefer rare/special setups or more classic ones?

Generally leaning towards predatory animal species. I don't know, they just tend to look more interesting to me. And more generally both felines and canines. It's a bit of a big field, but more or less anything in there is fun.

What are your favorite subjects to draw? o: Any that you don't get to often?

Not sure if there if there is a single specific theme or subject. Just anything that allows for a bit of a story in the picture is fun.

And any that i don't get often...hmmm. I feel that answer i only ever know when i open commissions and go "hmm, why's nobody asking for that?..." :'D
But no, i think overall i've assembled a following that has a pretty broad interest, so my commissions end up pretty broadly spread out. I mean just recently we've had the pilot one, a star wars picture, the streetwear crow, a portrait of a fox in a kigu, a desert picture, and onsen. Not to mention the YCH ones of the western watermill and polar expedition.
And this is after me already declining things i don't feel are up my alley.
I'm probably one of the least pidgeonholed furry artists which is kind of nice.

I think some calmer historical scenes might be the only thing i can think of. Historical stuff is already somewhat rare, and if happens then it's often something warfare related, wearing cool metal armor or something like that.

Do you like to read books, and if so, what do you usually read?

I enjoy reading but unfortunately just rarely have the time for it. It's gotten a little more now that i got an ipad and don't have to deal with physical books anymore, but it's still pretty sporadic.
As for what i usually read, mostly it's non-fiction stuff. Interesting biographical books, books about topics that i have an interesting in at that point in time etc. That sort of stuff.

The iPad does make for a good reading device.

It does. Especially nice because i didn't plan with it. Just was this nice extra functionality that i didn't consider when getting it :D

I guess you got it for drawing?

Yep!

So last question, if you still take them. What furry cons have you been to in europe?

Last year's EF and this year's NFC

Do you have any preferred reference material/sites/libraries?

Do you ever do any sketching or thumbnails in traditional media, or is it 100% digital?

And finally, how come Nomax seems to be so popular with cheetahs anyway?

I usually go with textures.com or pixabay if i have to actually use the photo in a painting. Aside from that it's just the regular image search.

As far as sketching goes, pretty much all my sketches started traditional until a few months ago. Though now my process switched to digital, meaning no traditional is involved anymore unless it feels helpful. Mostly that is if i want to try variation on more complex poses.

I don't know! For some reason i just have a lot of friends that have cheetah characters! So they get into his pants more often than the others :'D

Having lots of cheetah friends sounds like a good thing. :D

I do find your art rather inspiring (although I'm terrible at actually making stuff when inspired), would you have issue with someone using your art for rerference?

Also, I don't know if this is a valid question, but since I seem to be painting an animal for each letter of the alphabet, and am currently at 'L', do you have any suggestions for 'L' or anything after?

No problem, feel free to reference it! And hmm, animals with L... god it's always like that if you just are supposed to name something from such a broad swatch you think of anything but the thing you want. I guess Lion would be the obvious choice. Leopard, Lemur.

What inspired you to develop your art style in the way that it has? Looking back at your older drawings they’re a lot smoother compared to your drawings nowadays. It’s something that’s really unique and sets you apart from other artists who also paint in a more “realistic” style.
Going for super textured brushes somehow feels like petting a dog but going against the grain, it feels off to me.

It's just artwork that i saw others do. Frazetta, Greg Manchess, Craig Mullins etc. I mean aiming for realism is pretty straightforward, and over time learning about new artists just opened up my ideas about what might be possible and what i enjoy more.

Do you like having your work compared to masters of bygone eras such as Caravaggio or Goya, or do you, like Pollack, despise such assumed allusions and rather be seen as independent from the past; completely new and unique?

Don't really care either way tbh. I'll take anyone looking at my stuff as a win, no matter what their reason or thoughts may be. Well i mean i guess if they think it's shite then maybe that's not great, but ya know, as long as it's positive thoughts. :')

It's not a question, but I just want to say that your stuff is kinda inspiring to me. Not much of a painter myself (outside of watercolour), but your art has helped make me want to better understand the painting fundamentals.<3

Ohhh awesome! I'm glad i could spark an interest there and learning fundamentals will be the best way for you to take steps forward, so that's fantastic! And hey, any medium is great, in fact i'm currently trying to learn watercolours myself! So good luck to both of us at getting better at it :D

Thank you!

What's the hardest painting you ever did?

I haven't finished nor uploaded it! The hardest painting was one of the probably two dozens or so that i just ended up refunding throughout the years. I can't remember exactly which one might have been the hardest (nor can i even remember all of them in the first place... if you do it for years it kind of all blends together) but yeah, if it's just such a struggle that i can't even guarantee a decent outcome or don't feel like it would do my mental health good to push through then i'll just say sorry, but i can't finish it.

What are your favorite animals that you like to draw that are either anthro and/or not anthro?

I mean painted dogs are pretty fun, but also just generally the vast majority of canines and felines are super fun. Maned wolves and snow leopards are pretty high up for example.

What's a style that you tried out and were hesitant/nervous about, but ended up loving?

I'm having that currently with watercolours. Started learning them recently after wanting to learn them but kinda hating them because they are so tricky to handle. But now they're actually ground quite fun. Still plenty of frustration involved but i've at least had plenty of times where i was looking forward to my evening watercolour sketch.

Nice! I'd like to see you post more of em :)

Will probably be a while. Part of what i enjoy about the process with them currently is that i don't have to think about posting them. So maybe give it a few more months or so.

Who wears spots better: cheetahs or dalmatians?

Why hasn't Germany picked a single name to use throughout all the languages by now? How come every time I learn a new language, I gotta learn a new name for Germany? Get it together!

Is there a question that you're nervous about seeing show up here? If so, what is that question?

If you could, for real, in real life, have Nomax's AWD body would you want it? Does it change your answer if you're the only anthro animal in the world, or if everybody became anthros?

Cheetahs

Because the different areas ended up communicating with different tribes which then all just kind of merged into germans over time. So the name depends on which tribe they were in contact with for the most part.

Oh there are certainly some that would skirt the line between answering or not, buuuuut wouldn't be fun if i just gave it away like that!

Oh hell yeah and oh hell no. Actually on second though hmmm.... man showers would be a gigantic pain... just imagine having to shampoo all of that and dry it all...

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Part 2: best meal for breakfast? For lunch? For dinner? (I already know the answer to all three is kielbasa in brown sugar.)

What's the best headware for furries with big ears?

You're knotted in a partner who doesn't like long silences; what do you talk about?

Maybe somebody has already asked this, but reading through all these comments is your job, not mine! I know you've been putting in a lot of practice with water colors recently. Do you see yourself keeping that up long term, or is it a medium that feels more like a "when-I'm-in-the-mood" kind of thing?

Hmmm, i think it'll be lunch. It's that nice break while working, and also usually the time after which i eat my treats for the day! It's great! And for me it's the fish i always get for sunday lunches. :D

Well, nothing, clearly. Gotta have those ears flowing freely in the wind! They are the most elaborate headwear already.

Politics, clearly. Though realistically they'd just have to endure silence for the most part.

I hope that it is a more long term thing. I'd like to have an alternative option to just digital art all day every day, so while of course just my interest in the look of the medium is upfront, i also can't quite turn the freelance aspect of my brain off and be all like "I can probably sell these at some point and split my work between those two" :')

Which is fancier, glasses or ties?

When you need a break from work, what's your favorite hobby?

Would you ever consider giving Nomax a long, fluffy snow leopard tail? Our better yet, just chimera all the best parts of other species onto yourself until you're just fluff and sex.

What traits (physical or personality) do you like in men? In women?

I don't think ties are fancy at all. Modern times just ruined that because they just became standard business attire. They're just included in the basic getup. Glasses however are a choice, so clearly more fancy!

Does sleeping and being lazy count? But most time on one thing is probably spent just playing games with friends. That's technically a hobby. Other than that it's hiking.

Nope. Mixed characters like that don't really interest me at all.

I like them being chill. If someone's always up and about, doing this and that and whatnot i just get exhausted simply by being around them. I mean i get just having busy days of course, where one appointment follows the next, but there is a point where that is just too much for me. My mum's like that, which is probably where it stems from. I only remember her always having to go there, having to meet that person, oh and then i met her and we had to go drink a coffee because we haven't seen one another for like 5 minutes. :')

Who is your biggest professional inspiration? Does not need to be a furry.

Western cartoons, or eastern anime?

What's the longest one-day hike you've ever done? Like, did you just get lost one time and wander around for hours until you found your way back to civilization?

How big is your extended family? (For instance, my father is one of 8 children in his family. I have so many cousins on his side, I couldn't hope to remember all of their names.)

Ooof, just too many people to even make that call. Some of them should be listed in the profile thing FA allows.

Neither a whole lot, though i do think that when i do watch it i end up watching more anime. So i guess that wins?

I think around 10 hours was my maximum, but i don't really like massive trips like that where your legs want to stab you in your sleep afterwards. I just want a comfy few hour hike and then flop down at home.

Not very big actually, my mum's got 4 siblings and my dad i thiiiink has 2 or 3. The vast majority of my family i haven't really seen in ages though, so the actual mora tangible family that i end up seeing on bigger family celebrations every few years is maybe a dozen to two dozen people?

Given that the European Union allows for such ready travel (at least before a pandemic), where's your favorite place to go in the EU, outside of your own country? I'll accept a place that you'd like to see but haven't gotten to yet, as well.

Warmer weather that let's your sack really hang low and loose, or chillier weather that makes your balls stay close to your body?

Baths or showers?

Cats or dogs, as pets, not as fursonas?

Hmmmmmmm, i think #1 would be the alpine region, so either switzerland or austria. Though pretty closely followed by parts of italy, southern france and norway. There's just so many great places around and i assume the top desired ones just change from day to day :P

Maybe it's just that i don't remember the awfulness of cold weather anymore and the warm weather being so recent, but certainly the cold and closeby balls.

Bath if i really need some relaxing done and just flop into it instead of standing and everything, and shower anytime else.

Dogs. Though just because i have to decide. Both are lovely.

Massage or hot tub?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Robot dinosaurs have taken over the earth. How do you appease our new overlords who don't care much about paintings? (Yes, I did just download horizon zero dawn.)

What's the sexiest thing someone could whisper in your ear?

I've never been to either proper (as in like a dedicated shop to provide you the best possible experience). So i can't say!

Probably more or less here? I don't know, i can't even see myself a month down the line, so what the heck do i know. But the last 5 years were more or less the same, so i guess it's a decent bet to extend it for 5 more.

Oh, you know how i would. :'D

Errrrmmm..."first day of the vacation and we don't have to do shit but chill together" Yeeeeees please! But no, i don't know, maybe because i'm german and nothing ever sounds sexy in german, but i just don't think language is all that sexy, so anything meant to be sexy would just sound silly.
So the vacation thing would actually be pretty sexy because i'd love that!

"Geliebte" or "der Liebhaberin"

I think that was my last one. I woke up this morning completely unable to think of questions. At least, not good ones. In all about the stupid questions too but I like to mix in some good ones.

So then, what do you do when you find a sleepy cheetah that doesn't want to get out of bed? C:

Tuck em in neatly and tell them that it's ok, they can stay in a little longer and enjoy the sleepy morning.

*laughs... I should take you away to the Whackadoodle Inn and keep you there. OK... serious question... when you paint, does your mind sink in so far that you are really there with your subject?

V.

Hah! Hopefully they make good breakfast there. To the question, nope, i wish i could, but reaching a flow state while painting is super rare for me.

*nods... thank you... and Miss Buns makes a superb breakfast...

V.

Yes, some changes occured, for example the tribal version just slid into the background more and more. As for biography changes or details like that, there are some-ish, like a lot of the story is still more that cloud of ideas, so until i actually have some time to figure it out properly it's hard to say exactly what changed.

Not really. I envy the romanticized idea of it, but not how it would be in actuality.

Have you ever done a directly autobiographical work? You can lie...

Hmm, not in the sense of trying to recreate a specific moment 1:1, but for example the Was Ich Liebe painting from last year is a pretty personal one and probably could count as depicting my feelings at the time more closely. And of course i've got some solo adult stuff with Nomax, which while again not depicting any specific day or event, just end up depicting masturbation, sex toy use and so on which do of course happen.

How did you develop the skill to draw from imagination? And what techniques/tricks do you use to make animals more human in your anthro style

I don't draw from imagination a whole lot. Each picture probably involves a few dozen references for surroundings, characters and whatnot. Like i just have the basic idea and then bring in outside influence to help along.

As for the my anthro mix, it's really just keeping the animal head as close to the actual animal as possible, add a tail of course and then give them digitigrade feet (if the character has them). Aside from that my characters tend to be 99% human-like. I don't even try to do some stubby hand paw stuff or what have you, they just get hands and better like them!

Techincal question: In photoshop cc vers. 21; I have seen this done by other artists, (Mario Bucci) but how do you find then apply the grid to change the proportions of a picture you have done. Like distort but sets a grid over the picture or selection so it can be reproportioned while it is being painted, in? (sort of a final thing before merging or flattening it to create a jpg or png).

And how do you keep the layers you have done in a picture instead of it taking the wrong one and making everything you adjusted get discarded when you merge or flatten the picture to create a JPG? (all layers except background are on settings other than normal) FA won't post tiff images, they must be jpg or png.

Not sure what you mean with the first part. Either I'm not understanding it correctly or i'm just not using that feature.

And for the second part, i don't care much for single layers. For most of my work they're more just steps along the way, so new layers just get piled on top. And well, they don't get discarded because when i save the image for the upload i don't just toss the PSD file. I just keep the PSD files around.

yeah, I keep psd too, but that can't be uploaded as psd on anywhere so how do NOT lose the layers you did by flattening or merging layers? Since both don't merge or flatten right, even when I follow instructions from a book!

I have to instead do everything on one layer to get what I want like on a glass window, side of a building or a canvass since those are what I'm used to.

Well yes, PSD files aren't meant to be uploaded in that way. They're not traditional image files. If you want to upload a viewable image somewhere then that file will always have the layers collapsed. But that shouldn't change how the image looks, so i don't really know what you are doing with it.

What do you mean by collapse?

Like having it collapsed onto one layer

...by which method; flattening layers or merge layers?

I lose layers with shading or other overlay information on flatten, and merge does not give me the different level of resolution I create for each layer. Building each one on normal does not allow the lower (previous) layers to show through.

I am using the newest Photoshop 21.1 Creative Cloud.

There is no 'collapse' layers in the layers menu dropdown.

By no method. I just save as a seperate PNG file at the end. The PSD file is still present and i've no reason to flatten the layers there.

well okay, I guess I'll try that, except photoshop always asks "do you want to flatten layers first?

if and when I said no in the past it stayed a PSD".

I wonder if I can highlight all layers then make them the background?

Again, i've no idea what or where the problem occurs and i'm not really in a position to troubleshoot photoshop. All i ever do if i don't understand something is google for it. So maybe give that a shot and see if someone's got a solution for you.

I used frame by frame rate on a Mario Bucci video and found out that he draws as if he was on a canvass, and does not bother with layers. He used a cropping tool in photoshop set up to somehow use a larger distort on the whole picture, then used the straight line box select tool to block out places to make shadow borders then painted over them with a brush using various other tools of applying lines and stuff. Since you could not understand what I was asking, and there is still a disconnect between me a person who took your language in school but has never been there yet, trying to phrase my questions so You'd understand what I am trying to ask. I guess I'd have to actually live In Germany or Austria or Switzerland to understand your point of view.

From talking with German's who used my cab to go to the airport to return home to Germany, I know how to get a job in any German city or town by memorizing a map then getting a license to drive a cab, then I can get hired as a cab driver in your country, somewhere. Maybe I could run into the other furries that live in Germany too, or attend a convention. I kind of like German beers, So I have that share a conversation with a German to have, with.

Anyway, thanks for replying.

Rawr?

Chirp!

Do you gesture draw things first, or do you go right to the line work?

i don't really work with lines much at all aside for the sketch commissions. For those i do do gestures first though.

Without any financial concerns, what would you like to spend your time doing?

Oh man, probably a few days of just a whole bunch of nothing. After that visit some friends, travel, order a bunch of great food, buy a small house or flat somewhere. Not too much would probably change long term, it'd be a bunch of stuff in the beginning and then 2 months down the line i'd just be exhausted from it and want to get some time to relax and just do the stuff i do now everyday. Just paint a bit, have a good time playing games with friends etc. So from that point the biggest changes would probably simply be that i'd be buying higher quality groceries, doing less commissions and maybe treat myself more here and there. Oh, getting sooooo many more commissions as well :')

Just wanted to take a sec and chime in that you are one of my favorite artists and a huge inspiration for me. As for questions, I suppose I do wonder if this is what you do for a living or is this a side thing, and if so, what is it that you do as a day job?

Thank you very very much! And it is indeed my regular job! So it's painting all day every day.

What you usually do when you are not drawing/learning how to draw/eating/sleeping?

Mostly it's just recharging honestly. Art is rather exhausting mentally, so most days i'm just relaxing in the evening, watching youtube stuff or playing games with friends.That's probably 90% of the downtime i get. Other 10% or so is just whatever is fun, i enjoy doing small hikes around my area here, meeting friends at cons or at get togethers, that sort of stuff. Nothing overly fancy really.

I feel almost like you've received this question in the Curiouscat before, but I didn't find it...so!

What's a kind of commission you've always secretly wanted to do, but nobody's asked you for it? Whether it's subject matter or style-wise.

Hmm, i don't think i have those. By now i've had enough years to curate my stuff to the point where generally the commission requests align with my interests.
If at all it's some smaller thematic things every now and then that i might momentarily really enjoy, like recently the watermill picture or the arctic one. But i just have other avenues for them, so they never stay "unpainted" long enough for them to become some big sort of "Oh i really wish someone would ask me for this" affair. Nor are they ever long lasting ideas. Either they get painted like those two mentioned YCH pictures, or a few weeks down the line i just forget about them and other ideas crop up.

Have you ever thought of creating a personal art project？

Yeah plenty of times, but currently i just don't really have the time for a big project like that.

Have you tried out VRchat?

I don't have a VR headset, so i haven't.

A VR headset completes the experience, but isn’t a requirement. Desktop mode be just as engaging without the VR immersion.

Hmmm, well maybe at some point i might hop in for a moment then

jackals?

They're pretty fun!

Hell yeah

Oh, exciting! Who are your biggest art "idols," historical or contemporary? Not necessarily artists you feel influenced your style directly, but ones who have inspired or struck a particular chord with you?

There's just so many of them. A lot of impressionists are just fantastic, Sargent, Frazetta, Jamie Jones, Craig Mullins to like only even scratch the surface of the iceberg here. There's just been way too many great artists.

oh absolutely, it's hard to keep track of all of them. Lovely selection there, though! Are there any you do feel have directly influenced your style, or that you've taken particular cues from/studied to apply to your own work?

Pretty much all of them have been used for studies to varying degrees. So all of them had direct influence :D I don't think there's necessarily a difference between enjoying an artist and them having an influence on your work. Like i think there is at least some crossover at all times.
Some might be less, others more, but i do think that there is something about the art that you enjoy that you try to take with you into your own work. Even if it's just something as simple as how a particular artist draws their shoes or something like that :D

Very good point! I can definitely see how those lines would get blurred. Definitely something to consider when talking about inspirations

Have you ever considered doing something more? Like working in a studio for a big project, such as a video game? I believe you would be an excellent concept artist that could realy help bring someone's vision to life!

Not in a studio, no. That's just not really the work environment i enjoy. But if it is within freelance then sure, i've dabbled in some of that here and there.
Though not super interested in a concept artist position. It's just not my strength.

What's a piece of advice (art related or otherwise) you would give your past self? Let's say, when you started making art professionally.

Hmmm, i think i would say to start things earlier. Not that age is very important in this line of work, but in my case it seems to be a trend to kind of delay things i want to learn.
For example watercolours i only started recently despite wanting to dabble in them for a few years already, and same with my art in general. Like i had a time where i knew i wanted to get better at art, but just was that lazy teenage self playing videogames all day long.
So that is generally what i would encourage past (and even current me) to get better at. Not necessarily in the sense of "WORK EVERY WAKING HOURS AND NEVER HAVE FUN!" sort of way, but just to realize that if i don't start the ladder now then i'll just be carrying it around with me and still have to do those first steps later on. With nothing gained by just waiting it out.

Hmm, yeah, that's a trend I can relate to (and am trying to get better about as well). I wish you luck on that!

As a sort of follow-up, how do you go about getting better at your craft? As an example, perhaps critiques from acquaintances? Or maybe you're comfortable/confident with where your skills are now?

Thank you, and good luck to you as well then.

It's mostly just myself figuring things out, what i need to do better and so on. Some critiques are involved as well if people have the time for it, but for the most part it's just myself trying to learn however i can. Whether through resources like books or videos, experimentation, examining other artists etc.