F.A.Q - Frequently Asked Questions

Art
A1: How long have you been drawing?
A2: Who taught you/how did you learn how to draw?
A3: What classes have you taken?
A4: Is your art influenced by other artists or did you make up your own way of drawing anthros and characters?
A5: How do you think-up/get inspiration for your artwork?
A6: Do you prefer a realistic or cartoon/anime style?
A7: How did you get into drawing anthros and what made you continue drawing them?
A8: How long do you spend on a picture?
A9: Can you teach me how to draw?
A10: Do you take requests/can you draw something for me?
A11: Can I draw you something?
A12: In the art world, who do you admire the most (Writer/Artist/Musician)?
A13: If a friend of yours asked you if you would want to work on an original project that would require a LOT of time and effort, but you would get huge benefit from doing it (works for your portfolio, a decent sum of cash, etc) would you ever do it?
A14: What materials do you use?
A15: Can I use your artwork on my/another website?
A16: Can I save your pictures to my hard drive?

Characters
C1: Who is Funky Alien?
C2: Who is Leilani?
C3: Who is Fran Cervicé?
C4: What gave you the inspriation to create Kaeman and his darker form Nohman?
C5: So, what's White Shadow all about then?
C6: Is there going to be a White Shadow story/comic up soon?
C7: Why the heck would a big-time thief like Felicia adopt a kid, anyways?
C8: Do your characters exists within different continuities or are they all in the same universe?
C9: If your characters were in a movie, who would you want to do their voices and why?

Personal
P1: If you could obtain any superpower, what would it be and why?
P2: What's the wierdest food/drink you've had?
P3: When watching foreign language movies (not necessarily anime) do you prefer the speech dubbed or subbed?
P4: What kind of anime are you interested in?
P5: If you could be any animal what would it be?
P6: What is the absolute lowest and dirtiest thing you'd do to put your original works on the world map?
P7: Favorite Transformer?
P8: If you could turn back time what would you make different in your past?
P9: What's your worst pet hate?
P10: What's your favorite historical period and why?
P11: Fantasy or futuristic?
P12: Sonic the hedgehog or Mario? Why?
P13: Do you prefer sporty/exotic cars or speed boats?
P14: What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done?
P15: Have you ever forged a signature?
P16: Why aren't you ever on MSN?
P17: Will you be my friend?
P18: How do you feel about fan characters?

Random
R1: Pie?
R2: Is their a spoon?
R3: Pirates or Ninjas?
R4: Crazy Pirate Ninja or Deadly Zombie Alien? Why? Prefer to draw (if you ever wanted to)?
R5: Who would you go on a platonic date to the movies with - Minnie Mouse or Mufasa?
R6: If you were a melting candy bar, what candy bar would you be?
R7: What (common) name have you sworn never to name your children because you just hate the way it sounds?
R8: What's a movie you know is bad but think is good anyway?
R9: Brown gravy or white gravy?
R10: I think math is evil. Do you agree?

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Art
How long have you been drawing?
Pretty much all my life I guess. I think my earliest 'memory' would be from about 3-4 years old. I've only really been drawing what I would describe as 'well' for the last few years. But I think I'm only really now starting to make more smaller developments in my art.
That answer will probably be the same if I were asked 3 years from now ^^'

Who taught you/how did you learn how to draw?
Short of normal schooling, I pretty much taught myself. I've always enjoyed it so I just kept doing it. I looked at tutorials and anatomy and developed my own style.

What classes have you taken?
I took A-level art, and have recently a BA Hons degree in Animation. I'd also taken a few life drawing classes during that time.
But since most of my high school art classes revolved around fine art I've had to pretty much teach myself comic style art.

Is your art influenced by other artists or did you make up your own way of drawing anthros and characters?
Both. To be honest I don't think it can be truely one way or the other. Getting influenced by others is inevitable. Joe Madureira has been a big influence on me as his style is a mix of anime and comic art, which is something I try to go for in my own art. At the same time I try not to copy what others do and find my own style(s) to draw in and make them mine.

How do you think-up/get inspiration for your artwork?
Basically from looking around at stuff other people are doing. A lot of it comes from that or just random stuff that happened to pop into my head at the time.

Do you prefer a realistic or cartoon/anime style?
Depends on what it's being used for. Most of the time I'd go for the cartoon/comic/anime look as it appeals to me most. I do have a great appresiation for those who can draw and paint realistically as it's much more technically complex.

How did you get into drawing anthro and what made you continue drawing them?
I'd always been drawing anthro, long before I even knew that's what they were called. Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse are probably the reason for that It all just went from there.

How long do you spend on a picture?
Anywhere between 20 minutes and a few weeks. It depends on if I'm just doing a quick sketch or a full CG, but on average it's about 6 hours or so. Most of my natural media pieces take between 5-15 hours.

Can you teach me how to draw?
I'm not a very good teacher and there are a bunch of good books and tutorial sites out there. I have got a few 'tutorials' on how I do things though, so check them out ^_^

Do you take requests/can you draw something for me?
I don't take requests. I often don't have the time to draw pictures for free, and drawing takes up a lot of my time. It may sound selfish but if I'm not getting anything back in return (preferably money) then I can't spend my time on it. There are very rare times where I'll take one for a close friend, but most of the time I'll have to say no.
I do, however, take commissions. Check out the link at the top to find out my rates and such.

Can I draw you something?
Sure! If you wanna put the time towards it, then gifts and fanart are always welcome, particularly other people's renditions of my characters ^__^

In the art world, who do you admire the most (Writer/Artist/Musician)?
Writer: Hm, this is a pretty hard one for me as I don't actually read much, if at all. No doubt my creativity has taken a hit because of that...
Artist: There a quite a few, but Joe Madureira has been one of my biggest influences. I've always liked his style and how he mixed the anime and comic look for something unique. There's also the guys at Disney for how their style is so recognisable, yet they don't actually have a solid visual style. It's very adaptable to whatever they're going for visually but there's always something there that's distinctly Disney.
Music: Again, I don't really have anyone in mind for this as I tend to listen to a wide range of music. If pushed for an answer I think I'd have to say Michael Jackson, at least for the musical talent. There's no denying that he's been one of the biggest musical influences in history.

If a friend of yours asked you if you would want to work on an original project that would require a LOT of time and effort, but you would get huge benefit from doing it (works for your portfolio, a decent sum of cash, etc) would you ever do it?
Actually yes. In fact I'm kind of doing something like that at the moment. I can't really talk about it right now but I know that it's gonna be big

What materials do you use?
Most of my work is CGed in Photoshop CS2 and some in openCanvas1.1 or Paint Shop Pro 7, both with a Wacom Graphire 3 tablet. The linework is usually inked and scanned, though it is often drawn straight into the program.
For natural media pieces I usually use regular colour pencils, or watercolour paints.

Can I use your artwork on my/another website?
Not without my explicit permission. Email/note me about what it is you want to use a picture for first and I'll decide whether or not to allow it.

Can I save your pictures to my hard drive?
Sure. As long as you don't edit, redistibute, sell, or claim them as your own you won't find me jumping down your throat.

Characters
Who is Funky Alien?
He's my original character and web persona. I don't draw him much any more, but I still use him as my screen name. It was also a picture of him that first went onto this website, so I named my personal website after him. Lame? Ask me if I care ^__^
He did have a story at one point, but I ditched it as it wasn't all that good and I can't think of anything coherent for him right now, so he's staying as just a mascot for now.

Who is Leilani?
One of my (very) few human characters. I wanted to create a human character to use frequently, and one that has some reflection on my ethnicity as I rarely ever draw coloured people it seems.
At the moment she appears to be more of a mascot character, but she has a defined personality. She's rather sassy and very confident, and seems to love teasing Fran whenever she can.
I'll develop her more as time goes by... maybe even give her a last name as well...

Who is Fran Cervicé?
A character I created largely for the purpose of expressing my fan service tendencies. Hence the name ^^'
But of course she's more than just that, she has a full personality and is actually very intelligent. Usually quite reserved, she can be fairly sure of herself when she wants to be and often speaks her mind. She also loves gaming and is pretty damn good at it. She's just rather unlucky and clumsy at times, which tends to get her into some embarrasing situations. She also has a love of cosplay, and is often seen wearing outfits of ther characters, most of which she made herself.

What gave you the inspriation to create Kaeman and his darker form Nohman?
Kaeman and Nohman actually came about from an animation project. We had to create two characters representing our light and dark sides, and so these two were born from that.

So, what's White Shadow all about then?
White Shadow is a story I've been very slowly developing over the last few years. Felicia Nightshade (codename: White Shadow) is a tech-thief/hired recon that is trying to track down her parents killer so she can get her revenge. She knows his face, just finding him can be difficult. After one particular mission she is charged with looking after a young girl named Tabitha Langley (Tabby, for short), much to Felicia's chagrin. As time goes by she reluctantly grows closer to Tabby, causing her to have doubts about the path her life is taking.
There's also the cop Leon Ryans who is assigned the mission of tracking her down, and they develop a love/hate relationship with each other which complicates things for both of their lives. G.K is Felicia's techie and go-to guy who supplies her with gadgets, support on missions, and has a major crush on her (which she likes to occasionally take advantage of )
Then there's Violet. A cold and calculated psychopath who works for the man Felicia is looking for, and is a match for her in terms of speed and skill. She's a very dangerous lady.
There's more to it than that, but that's just a synopsis on the main theme of the story.

Is there going to be a White Shadow story/comic up soon?
Who knows, hopefully during this lifetime...
Actually I've got a sketchy framework for the course of the story mapped out in my head. I just need more characters and a solid plotline and I can start on a comic or something.
~Caine187 has been writing a fanfiction based on White Shadow, which has helped me solidify certain things in my head. It's technically not totally canon to the universe I imagine, but it's still a good read

Why the heck would a big-time thief like Felicia adopt a kid, anyways?
She didn't so much adopt her as she had no choice but to look after her. A rescue mission that went wrong basically.

Do your characters exists within different continuities or are they all in the same universe?
A bit of both. For the most part, they have their own universes;
White Shadow contains Felicia Nightshade, Leon Ryans, Tabitha Langley, G.K, Violet, and any other major and incidental characters like Valerie Hawkins and her cameraman.
Kaeman and Nohman effectively have their own continuity, where Nohman is an entity born from Kaeman himself, representing all of his negative emotions and rage. Kaeman is trying to find and defeat Nohman. Generally they exist in all but White Shadow, but as they're extensions of myself they can pretty much be where I want them to and do whatever I want them to.
Funky Alien, Leilani and Fran Cervicé are like Kaeman and Nohman in the sense that they can exist whereever I wish them to, other than White Shadow. Fran may have a role there at some point (slightly different to how she is usually).

Ultimately though, all of my characters can co-exist in a separate universe which is pretty much the inner workings of my mind. They all live together in a rather large house and for the most part a free of their own storylines. Fran often plays games with Kaeman, Nohman picks on Fran, Leilani teases her, Kaeman and Nohman discuss things from two very different points of view, Felicia often engages herself in training but likes to hang out with everyone else etc... It's a big chillout space, really.

Then there's a continuity that's somewhat more fantasy styled involving all of the characters. I'm yet to actually write any of it, but in this parallel universe their stories here would closely resemble how they are usually but with a different twist and a unifying plotline. There's a sketch that sparked this off at this [link]

If your characters were in a movie, who would you want to do their voices and why?
Hm. Well once again I can't say it's something I've ever really thought about. By the time any of my characters get into a movie there'd probably be a whole load of different actors to chose from.
Out of the actors around now though...... you know, I really have no idea. Minds gone totally blank on this ^^'

Personal
If you could obtain any superpower, what would it be and why?
Teleportation (one of Kaeman's untrained traits). It would be so awesome to instantly move from one place to the other, and the fizzing or 'bamf' sound it would make is pretty cool

What's the wierdest food/drink you've had?
The only food I can thing of is paella. Had some in Spanish class once... I'm not sure if I liked it or not. It had a strange texture to it. Can't think of any strange drinks though...

When watching foreign language movies (not necessarily anime) do you prefer the speech dubbed or subbed?
In the case of anime I really don't mind which language it's in. I'm likely to watch a series twice just to hear it in both languages. With live action it really depends on the quality of the dub. I usually watch it in the original language but if the dub's good I'll watch it like that so I don't have to read so much and miss anything. If the english dub's bad *coughOng Bakcough* then I won't go near the dub again unless it's to inflict it upon someone else

What kind of anime are you interested in?
Hmm. I took a quick look at my collection and it seems to be mostly mech and giant robot anime Evangelion, Full Metal Panic!, Ghost in the Shell etc. But I do like other types. Excel Saga (plain weird), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (great anime), Godannar (also mech, but hilarious) Full Metal Alchemist, Read or Die, and a few of the classics like Akira and Miyazaki movies.
Basically, anything with a good story or high entertainment value.

If you could be any animal what would it be?
Shames me to say it, but a cat. They're pretty agile and have good balance, and they don't drool everywhere. That said, hairballs would suck. But you know how the song goes: "everybody wants to be a cat..."

What is the absolute lowest and dirtiest thing you'd do to put your original works on the world map?
Um...... draw porn and post it somewhere? I dunno, it's not really something I've given a whole lot of thought.

Favorite Transformer?
Probably Prime. I didn't really watch the series that much as a kid, but the animated movie was awesome. And the mystery of the trailer is always good to ponder on

If you could turn back time what would you make different in your past?
Probably find a way to keep my parents from getting divorced. But what's done is done and there's little point in agonising over what could have been done, only what to do next.

What's your worst pet hate?
Probably bad grammar. Mostly mixing up stuff like 'their' and 'there', 'your' and 'you're'. I dunno, it's something that I always notice.

What's your favorite historical period and why?
I don't think I have a favourite period so I'm just gonna have to say yesterday to answer that

Fantasy or futuristic?
A mix of both for me. That tends to give the best effect visually and has the best of both worlds, a mix of advanced technology with a fusion of magic

Sonic the hedgehog or Mario? Why?
Sonic the Hedgehog. I never had a SNES but I always liked the gameplay in the Sonic games more than the Mario games. I've played most of the major series games since the first released on the Mega Drive, and although I feel like the series is going downhill (and has been since the Adventure series) the diehard fan in me won't let it go.

Do you prefer sporty/exotic cars or speed boats?
Sporty cars I'd say. Depends on the design of the car but I'd prefer it over a boat. Mostly because I can drive so have at least a chance of getting into one, but I can't float so I'm screwed if I fall out of the boat XD

What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done?
I honestly can't think of anything, and I've been sat here for a while thinking. Whatever it is, it probably wasn't that bad. Or it was so much that it's blocked from my memory

Have you ever forged a signature?
Can't say that I have. My conscience probably stopped me there, but then I've never really needed to either.

Why aren't you ever on MSN?
I dunno, seems like I avoid it sometimes. I'm making efforts to be online more these days, so if you have something to talk about with me I'll hopefully be there to talk about it.
As an aside, PLEASE don't just add me for the sake of doing so or adding to your collection of 'popular' artists on dA. It's pretty irritating to find that I never once have a meaningful conversation with someone that added me, so if you are going to start a conversation please have something you want to talk about. That way you won't find that I stop talking after a while as there's suddenly nothing worth talking about.

And for goodness sake, PLEASE don't make art requests. Unless you are a good friend of mine (most likely involving me having met you in real life) I WILL turn down the request. Don't ask me.

Will you be my friend?
This is a very strange question me. It's not exactly something I can just say 'yes' to and then we're instantly friends. Friendship is more something that takes place over a period of time and getting to know each other.
Basically, I can't honour a frienship request because it just doesn't make sense to do so. However, if I've known you long enough and got to know a bit about you, then yes, I can consider you a friend.
Just don't ask for friendship, because it's kinda weird.

How do you feel about fan characters?
Hm. Touchy subject, really.
Please don't take offence to this, but a large number of fan characters are either recolours or somehow involved with the main cast of a series. In some cases this is okay, but in many it can be horribly unoriginal and uncreative.
Don't get me wrong here, I've seen some fantastic fan characters from many different series. Kudos to those guys. But a lot of them tend to fall into the latter category of not being too original, either in design or story.
There are times where I can allow this, but these times are quite rare. Like I say, touchy subject.

Random
Pie?
I like pie

Is their a spoon?
There is no spoon. Only a spork.

Pirates or Ninjas?
Ninjas for me Pirates are awesome no doubt, but a ninja would own in a battle between them.

Crazy Pirate Ninja or Deadly Zombie Alien? Why? Prefer to draw (if you ever wanted to)?
Dude, you merged a pirate and a ninja. That's instant WIN in my books The combined power could easily destroy any opponent, even if it's a Deadly Zombie Alien. Plus, pirates and ninja are fun to draw

Who would you go on a platonic date to the movies with - Minnie Mouse or Mufasa?
That is a weird question Well I'd have to say Minnie Mouse then. If it were Mufasa we'd call it hangin out, although it would be interesting to hear some stuff about how he actually rules his kingdom

If you were a melting candy bar, what candy bar would you be?
Twix

What (common) name have you sworn never to name your children because you just hate the way it sounds?
Can't say I've given it much thought to be honest...

What's a movie you know is bad but think is good anyway?
I...... really don't know. I tend not to like bad movies so if there is one I really don't remember what it is.

Brown gravy or white gravy?
There's white gravy?

I think math is evil. Do you agree?
Yup. And it can be used to work out other forms of evil, making it more evil.
But I guess it's still useful...

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Anymore questions to add to the list? Just lemme know and I'll put it up here