I've removed all watches and will no longer be submitting anything here. I'll leave my art up so it doesn't disappear from peoples' galleries.

Please go watch my new account, ~Drake-Dragon!

I've resubmitted all of my stuff on my new account, ~Drake-Dragon. I don't know what I'll do with all the stuff here. I don't really want to take it down, since that would cause people to mysteriously lose their favorites, and I don't want that to happen. Maybe I'll replace every image with a "moved" image, since that would trigger a message to all watchers. Or not. Maybe I'll just disable comments on everything. Hm. They don't make this easy, do they

A couple hours ago I posted this journal [link]

And now I have a new account. GOODBYE SHITTY USERNAME

I HATE YOU

Oh, yeah, the account.

I'll be migrating my stuff over. This'll take a little while.

craptacular69 was never meant to become my alter ego. It was a throwaway name, something I'd use to register for sites I didn't care about, or when I wanted anonymity. But, as time went on, I started commenting on peoples' work, and then eventually uploaded my own, and got an FA account, and.. well now I've built up some measure of reputation with it.

And it sucks. It's a crappy username (no pun intended). It's meant to be relatively uncommon: a concatenation of a Bart Simpsonism and a humorous number. It means nothing to me. It doesn't reflect me or my work. And I really don't want to get stuck with the nickname "crappy."

Then again, changing usernames is certainly a hassle.. I'd have to reupload all my work, link my old pages and submissions to the new ones, and lose all of my preeeeeecious view statistics X)

So I might be changing my username soon. I'm not sure to what yet. Drake is taken on both DA and FA, as I expected. I don't know what silly numbers or words to tack on to it. I'm terrible at coming up with names.

Just a little questionnaire that I've seen some other artists doing.

When did you start drawing?
If you want to get really technical, when I was 3 or 4, but the scrawlings I was making then probably wouldn't qualify So I really started at 11 or 12, though I didn't really develop my artistic talents until much more recently (only in the past 2 or 3 years).

Which hand do you use for drawing?
Right. I can't do anything with my left hand. Well. Almost anything.

Which is easier to draw - male or female?
I uh, haven't actually drawn a female. *cough* So we'll say "male."

Which is easier to draw - long hair or short hair?
Neither. Hair fucking sucks.

Is it easier to draw the head facing towards the right or the left?
I'm OK either way. I always constantly flip the view of whatever I'm drawing in order to watch out for perspective and proportion issues, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Is it easier to draw the side view of the face or the front view?
Depends on the character I think.. some really lend themselves to being viewed from the front, others not so much. But I don't usually have much difficulty with that either way.

What do you have problems in drawing?
Everything. But really, I am constantly fixing anatomy. I'm never satisfied with it, probably because I know so little of it. In addition, hair pisses me off, if I didn't make that clear earlier. Cloth too.

What do you like to draw?
Male reptilian anthros. Surpriiiiise!

Are you a traditional artist or a digital artist?
Digital. I've done very little traditional art beyond simple pencil sketches. I find it hard to give up all the advantages of digital, especially when it comes to cost; those pencils cost how much?! I also have a very cramped room, virtually no storage space, and change apartments every couple years, so the fewer physical things I have to deal with, the better.

Where do you start drawing from?
The head sphere goes down first, and immediately afterwards are the eyes. The eyes and face are one of the first things that people will look at in a drawing, and the direction of the head and eyes usually indicates the intentionality - and as a result, the rest of the pose - of the character. After the head comes the spine, which is the other important determiner of pose. Everything else is just tacked on after that.

What is your drawing habit that you are aware of?
I'm not completely sure what this question is asking, but.. I draw a lot of facial expressions with one eyebrow up and the other down. I tend to draw characters in 3/4 perspective with one foot viewed from the side and the other facing the viewer. Also, when I'm really working hard, I tip my head to the right. Like almost on its side. I don't even notice it until my neck starts to hurt.

Any tips for coloring/shading?
Um, I am a complete noob at this XD

Okay, well, I guess I should say that I've found it easier to start with everything dark and bring in the lights, rather than the other way around. I dunno, it works for me, and if you have trouble with shading, maybe it'll work for you too. Cel shading is easier since you can sort of "cheat" on where the shadows and highlights are, and it'll still look pretty good

There are some other things that I've learned that might be helpful. I have sort of an intuitive eye for color, so I've never found it difficult to pick out a color scheme that works for a character, but I notice a lot of newer artists use garish colors. Please, do not color your dragons (0, 255, 0). That color never appears in nature, even on the most colorful poison dart frog. Take down the saturation and luminescence. Don't use extremes.

When lighting and shading, try using colors other than greys. A slightly yellow highlight color and a slightly blue shadow color can do a lot to make the piece look more dynamic. Using a "backlight" or "rimlight" - a weak light in the shadows - to indicate reflected light can really help bring out detail in dark areas as well. But keep basic physics in mind, and don't put rimlights in places that would obviously be obscured.

How long does it take to finish a piece of art?
Too fucking long, and that's something I want to change. A sketch can take me several hours. A full piece - just a character, no background - can take as long as 24.

What music do you listen to while you draw?
Random shit. I've started to listen to Cut Chemist and Coldcut radio on last.fm, and I really like a lot of the stuff on there. It's great for working to. Other stuff I listen to while working is progressive trance (more web radio there), Royksopp, Air, Dntel, Postal Service, Death Cab, Ghost Monkey (aka Polyfonken), Muse, Gorillaz, Radiohead, The Dear Hunter, Manu Chao, James Yorkston.. yeah, there's no real rhyme or reason there. Pandora also seems to think I have a thing for bossa nova/tango revival, and I somewhat agree; Gotan Project is fucking awesome.

How long does it take you to come up with an idea?
Forever. It's the hardest part for me, and I don't know how people come up with ideas so easily. I will bang my head on the desk for anywhere from 3 hours to 3 weeks trying to come up with an idea to draw. It's not just drawing, either; I have a very hard time coming up with ideas for anything. I guess I'm just a terribly uncreative person.

Your favorite drawing utensils?
An Intuos3 and Paint Tool Sai. If you have a tablet, try out some of the different stylus tips. I found I like the felt tip much better than the default tip, to the extent that it feels almost like a different tablet.

Your favorite color/the color that you use a lot?
Ummmmmmmm I have no idea. I like all the colors

Your favorite style(s)?
Comic art. Even within that, there's a huge amount of variation, from hyperrealistic to noir to cartoony to abstract. Also, ink-and-watercolor is awesome.

Are you satisfied with your current art?
No, never. You can never be satisfied with your skills at anything, or else you'll never improve.

What kind of artist are you aiming for?
If I could even come close to where ~weremagnus was like five years ago, that'd be awesome. But I'm not in this to make money or to become a famous artist or anything, at least not at the moment. It's just a hobby, one that I have a lot of fun with, and maybe it'll always be that way.

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Request status:

1. *Letdragon: Chef Wani - Done
2. ~SymbolHero: Orion - Done
3. ~lord-mondragon: Nick - Sort of planning
4. ~EmotionCreator: Himself - Not started
5. ~commanderhavoc: Jake Long - Not started
6. ~keke82: Gleeok - Not started
7. ~koopakid12: Kio - Not started
8. ~WolfUrameshi: Wolf Urameshi - Not started

Requests are currently closed.