Artist's questionnaire

I decided to follow up the previous questionnaire with another questionnaire. This one was written by stupied.neocities.org and you can find the blank version here if you would like to fill it out yourself. If you do, please tell me! It’s fun to see what people have to say about the way they do things. Now, I wonder if I make enough art these days to even call myself an artist…

1. Introduce yourself! What kind of art do you make?

Hi! I'm Veronica. I generally do digital art, though of course I do doodle on my notes and I guess you could count knitting as a "fiber art" too (though I feel like I usually follow other people's knitting patterns. Hm. I think if I started coming up with my own pattern design I would consider this more of a creative task.)

2. How long have you been making art?

I feel like every child learns to draw the moment they have a mark-making implement in their hand, but I started trying to take art seriously when I was about 19 years old. Well, as seriously as one can take drawing little cartoons. Wow, it's almost been 10 years...

3. How many hours do you spend for each piece?

Way too many. I used to be able to draw very quickly but now I enjoy the meditative process of markmaking.

4. Do you prefer taking your time or do you like to quickly move on to the next thing?

Ah, I guess I answered this question a little bit on the last one! I take my time.

5. When do you decide a piece is finished?

When I don't feel like there's something "missing" from it. But I guess the real question is "when do I decide that there is no longer something missing?" and that's pretty hard for me to answer. It's just a feeling of "this piece has all the things I set out to draw in it" so it could be anything really.

6. What part of the creation process do you enjoy the most?

I like painting the most.

7. What part of the creation process do you dislike the most?

I dislike drawing outlines. So I'll try to practice it more until I enjoy it, haha. With non-digital art, I also don't really like mixing the paint because I'm too impatient.

8. Do you have a designated workstation or do you just work wherever?

Right now I'm using a desktop computer for art, so I'm forced to draw in just one location.

9. Do you monetize you work or is it purely a hobby?

I have briefly in the past tried doing commission work and it erodes my soul so completely that I've sworn off all monetization forever. Thankfully I have a day job so I don't have to depend on monetizing my hobby. If I had to depend on it financially for the maintenance of my day-to-day life, the joy of creating would disappear completely.

10. Where do you share your work? On social media or a personal websites? Do you keep to yourself and close friends?

I used to share it on social media and on a different personal website, but I don't like that work anymore so I've scrubbed it. Now I need to build up a new body of work again... I go through this sort of phase frequently.

11. What's an aspect of your art you enjoy?

Not to toot my own horn but I really do like my use of color. I'd still like to improve my ability to slap it down on the canvas faster though. Right now I just use 1 layer normal mode for everything haha, so any changes to color have to be manually added, which is fun for me to tweak but does take a while to do.

12. What are things you would like to improve on?

Because I spend such a long time not drawing in between drawings, I sort of "un-learn" various fundamentals and have to go back to studying them. So I'd like to relearn the perseverance to stay in practice. And I think also just getting better with getting an eye for proportion and for accurately capturing a real person's likeness (which is something I've always shied away from because I do such a godawful job on it every time).

13. Are you self-taught or had formal education?

I took some public school art classes from 8th to 10th grade but nothing particularly advanced. When I was in undergrad, I tried sitting in on an art class, but the professor molested me during office hours and now when I try to go near an art school I become irrationally afraid and can't enter the building.

14. Do you research about old techniques or stick to newer ones?

I like researching about old techniques but don't often put them in practice. It's more just something that I'm interested in knowing about.

15. What do you value more, experimentation or mastery?

I think it depends on what I'm seeing more or less of. So to be honest in the amateur spaces that I frequent I care more about mastery.

16. Do you practice drawing from the arm? What other art techniques to you practice?

Yeah, I draw from the shoulder. I guess I also like to practice "drawing what you see" and trying to avoid symbol thinking even when drawing extremely stylized anime girls, haha.

17. How frequently do you do studies?

I enjoy redrawing everything as something else, so most of my art is a study in some way. But I don't often do pure one-to-one studies. Perhaps I should start doing that! But I worry that it would make me just be better at copying and not better at the underlying technique if I didn't do it properly.

18. Do you understand color theory? How'd you learn or do you want to?

Yes. I feel like by simply looking at the color palettes that other artists put into practice in their own work you can get a sense for it. Though of course I have only sat down and thought about the extreme basic stuff on the color wheel and pondered things about hue, saturation, and value. I'd also like to spend more time thinking about alternate color spaces as they are represented in the digital world.

19. Favorite color(s)?

Yellow, green, red... wait, I'll name them all...

20. Are there colors you avoid? Do you think ugly colors exists?

No, I think only bad combinations of colors exist. Any color can be good on its own or next to the right other color.

21. Can you do perspective?

Yes.

22. Do you like doing lineart? How do you go about it?

Argh, I do not like lineart. But when I do lineart, I usually block out a shape with solid color and only then would I draw the outline.

23. Do you have multiple unfinished projects? Will you ever get to finishing them?

Yes I have 5 million unfinished works but I just delete them when I get tired of looking at the WIP pile. Well, it's OK, because I enjoy drawing for the process too and not just the finished result. But I guess it would be nice to show someone else the finished work...

24. How do you start a new piece? Do you have a plan or just figure it along the way?

Usually I have some sort of fairly realized image in my mind, so then I either go out and search for a picture that sort of looks like that mental image and draw a "fanart" of that picture, or I just immediately start putting down a sketch. It's sort of strange. I guess drawing is mostly getting the image that already exists out of me.

25. How do you handle art block?

I just don't draw for a while and do something else that I enjoy.

26. Do you listen to music or watch something while working?

I can listen to music, but I don't want to direct my visual attention to something else when I'm drawing.

27. When are you most motivated to create? In the morning or evening? Rainy or sunny?

I am cursed to only want to draw at exactly 2 in the morning.

28. Are your sketchbooks messy or aesthetically pleasing?

I would say that they are simply unaesthetically pleasing.

29. Do you like showing sketchbooks to others?

No.

30. Do you have any art friends? IRL or online?

Most of my online friends are art friends who I made through making art, especially on Drawpile. IRL I have a friend who went to school for painting but we mostly play RTS games together.

31. Do you collaborate frequently with your friends? Is there something you'd like to work on together?

I've always wanted to make a doujin circle or something and work on a big project like that but it's never actually happened.

32. Have you created art to gift to others? How do feel about parting away from your work?

Yes, and it's completely fine, because the memory of making the art will always be with me. I guess this is more about physical objects, but this seems like a pretty silly question about digital art. When it comes to making knit goods for others, I'm just happy if I get to see them wear it sometime.

33. Have you drawn for someone else? Like commissions or requests? Did you enjoy it?

Yes and I hate it lol. There's a strange feeling of pressure that I can't get used to.

34. How's your posture?

I think it's actually fine, which I understand is not stereotypical for an artist.

35. Have you ever been injured making art?

I've exacerbated an occupationally-induced tennis elbow by drawing too much, but that was really originally from operating a panini press like 1000 times a day. There are many funny occupational injury stories like that, which I might answer if there was a "100 questions for employed people" questionnaire one day.

36. What's a medium of art you've wanted to try / currently attempting?

I'd really like to learn to use oil paints.

37. Do you prefer stylized or realistic art?

I like the skill required to create realistic and non-uncanny (canny?) art, but I prefer making stylized art myself. Perhaps this because I have lower skill levels, haha!

38. Do you like hyper-realistic art?

I suppose as an exercise I like it. But I don't really seek it out.

39. Do you like abstract art?

It actually really depends on the school of abstract art. I hate color fields (Rothko, Newman, etc) but enjoy some of Malevich's suprematist work as well as constructivism. If you can really call it abstract art (maybe pre-abstract? There is a certain level of abstraction) I really like Fauvism, but I'm not crazy about abstract expressionism although I can appreciate the textures created.

40. How do you feel about fine art?

Generally I would say that I'm basic and enjoy the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's works. I enjoying going to museums and looking at the art. One of my friends I would consider to be a classically trained "fine artist" and I really enjoy his work.

41. How do you feel about outsider art? Do you think you fall in that category?

I think the phrase "outsider art" is mainly used in a sort of classist and derogatory context, or is used to pathologize the creativity of artists.

42. Do you follow art trends?

Not really. Maybe unconsiously?

43. Do you think your art is influenced by what's currently popular?

I guess that in the world of anime fan art I am probably being subconsciously influenced by standards of moe but I don't really go out of my way to try to emulate the zeitgeist.

44. Do you compare yourself with others? Does it affect you negatively?

Unfortunately when I spend time with other artists and see the art they make I will make the comparison in my mind and keep it to myself, and if I feel like "Oho, my art is better than that" then I feel like a jerk for thinking that, and if I feel like "Oh, my art is worse than that" then I'll feel a bit down on myself, though I can also take that sort of thing as inspiration to improve.

45. Your controversial art take?

I love extremely offensive art but dislike the impulse to say "No, no it's not offensive, you're the weird one for finding it offensive" or whatever. It's just cowardly.

46. Art related pet peeves?

I'm sorry to say this but it really bothers me when I see people who are genuinely not very skilled yet at art trying to sell their art on the internet to make a living. I know it's none of my business though. Probably there is someone out there who's looked at my art and cringed at how garbage it looks too.

47. Who or what are your inspirations?

Ada Thilén, Elin Danielson-Gambogi, Aida Makoto, Claude Monet. I think the problem is I don't really keep track of artists, and though I might find a piece of artwork inspirational, I just keep the image in my memory and forget the name. It's a bad habit!

48. What's an art piece / artist you wished got more attention?

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! by Takata Fuyuhiko.

49. Have you touch grass recently? Do you go out frequently or do you spend most of your time indoors?

I touch grass frequently and try to walk around outside for at least 5,000 steps every day.

50. Do you create art daily?

No, I wish.

51. Do you take breaks from creating? How frequently?

I often take months-long breaks from creating.

52. Do you set deadline for your work?

If I did, then there would be no work...

53. Do you archive your work? Do you keep old pieces?

I delete everything every few years.

54. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Or are you indifferent by it?

Yes, I'm embarrassed of it. It looks like ass. I can't stand by it, haha.

55. Do you seek out for criticism? How do you handle feedback?

I'm a worse critic to myself than anything anyone else will have to say about it. A lot of the time the feedback that I get perhaps isn't so helpful to what I was looking for anyway, which makes me think that perhaps I have miscommunicated in some way.

56. Are you harsh on your own work? Or do you love your work despite all it's flaws?

I'm quite harsh on it as I'm working on it and then in the end I stop when I'm happy with the work.

57. Do you get compliments frequently? How do feel about them?

Yes, it's nice, but I guess... hm... sometimes the compliment is from someone who when I look at the other art they're interested in, I'm really not interested in that sort of thing, and I wonder if my work is appealing for a reason that I wouldn't like.

58. How do feel about the rise of generative AI? Do you use it for getting ideas or references?

I think the fear of generative AI in art is largely overblown; if your art is only worth the pixels on the screen then you've already lost, AI or no AI. Generative AI in art is like... I don't know. Teaching a monkey to paint. Sure, I guess it's interesting that the monkey can do that. And if the monkey could create a perfect replica of the Mona Lisa, I'd say "Wow, that's a talented monkey." But... is the world seriously interested in spending a lot of time and money on monkey art? How depressing... It's just low effort novelty content.

59. How do feel about tracing? What about tracing 3d models to streamline art process?

It creates stiff looking work. I think it's better to practice how to see what you're looking at and then try to recreate it. At the same time I am guilty of tracing memes to try and make my version be as similar as possible.

60. Drop you art resources!

Elements of perspective

61. Do you prefer making fanart or original content?

I'm cursed to only create fanart.

62. Do you think original content are more creative than fanart?

Yeah, probably. But I love to be derivative.

To be more serious about it, I think that there is a necessary derivative and uncreative element to fanart and fanwork in general in which some of the heavy lift has been done by someone else in design, story skeleton, creating something people are pre-invested in, etc. but then you are still offered a great deal of freedom within this constraint. And to be honest many original works are also quite uncreative and derivative, so even if the ceiling for originality is a bit lower for fanworks, it's not a relevant ceiling when it comes to work that most people are making. "On average" it might actually be about the same since everyone is using their eyes and minds to integrate the works they've already seen into their mind and become influenced by it.

63. Do you strive for originality?

Even though I'm living under the creativity ceiling of fanart, I'll try to be original in a different way.

64. Do you draw from imagination or heavily rely on references?

I think I try to use both, to be honest.

65. Do you think using references is a crutch?

It's really all about the way that you use references. If you look at references and use them as a way to learn how to see things, then I don't think it's a crutch. But if all you can do is copy the reference and become helpless when there is no reference at hand, then it's definitely become a crutch.

66. Do you like to make mood boards or scroll through Pinterest?

I have a Pinterest account but barely use it.

67. Does your work have a story behind them or do you just make things that you think look neat?

I'd like to have some sort of "story" even if it's a secret to the viewer forever.

68. Do you think art should have a purpose?

No.

69. Favorite aesthetic?

Ah, do you mean in the zoomer way? I guess the "pulpy fantasy novel with a really cool-looking wizard painting on the cover" aesthetic.

70. Do you have a muse or a theme you fall back to?

Hm, yes, my anime waifu.

71. If you could eat you art, what would it taste like?

It would taste like wet paper. Haha.

72. If your work suddenly became sentient, would it adore or hate you?

I think my art would be afraid of me.

73. Based on previous question, can you win in a fist fight against it?

I have bad upper body strength due to low testosterone so I would lose.

74. Is your art style consistent? Do you prefer making a wide variety of art?

There are elements that stay consistent whether I want it to be or not, but I do try to branch out.

75. Do you revisit old concepts or sketches? Do you touch em up or leave them as is?

I delete my old sketches, but I guess I can revisit them by accident if the concept was compelling enough to stay in my mind after several years.

76. Do you believe in talent or is it all skill?

If you imagine that "artistic ability" could be the y-axis of a line graph, "skill" would be the x-axis, and "talent" would be the slope. Essentially I think that talent allows you to turn the hard work of skill into good work more effectively.

77. What's your favorite thing to draw / make? Do you prefer making living things or still life?

I love to draw... anime girls...

78. Do you create your art with a specific audience in mind? Who?

The audience these days is just myself.

79. How do you feel about people taking inspiration from work? Do you think art style theft is real?

I think the only time that art style theft is real is when someone is really trying to pass themselves off as the artist in question in some way, or trying to represent their work as a replacement for the artist in question's. But I think inspiration is fine.

80. Do you participate in art conventions? Do you sell your work or support everyone else?

No. I've been to some artist alleys and bought keychains of my favorite characters, I guess.

81. Are you art materials expensive? Do you hoard any tools?

I suppose that "software" and "tablet" can be sort of expensive. When it comes to yarn, I have way too much yarn left over from projects I finished or projects I ended up never starting.

82. Do you organize you supplies and tools systematically?

No, actually I often end up losing them by accident.

83. Do you clean up after a project? Or do you just leave everything lying around till you need the space?

I am horribly messy so I leave everything lying around.

84. Do you have a ritual before you start creating? Do you have a drink or some snacks?

No. Hm, it could be fun. But I feel like there are already too many barriers to me creating art, so I don't want to create more things that I have to do before drawing in order to start drawing.

85. How do feel about censorship in art? Where do you draw the line for inappropriate art?

I think there's a time and a place for everything, and I mean everything. I think this website might not be a place for everything that I've drawn in the past, but that's OK. Perhaps I would put it somewhere else. But I still think that people should keep looking for and creating the times and places for their art, even if it's a lot of effort.

86. Do you censor your own art? Do you feel like you leave out details for it be socially accepted?

I would say that I actually would go out of my way to add things that were edgelordy and socially unacceptable even if I was not particularly interested in it just to be annoying. The issue is that then my audience starts to fill with people that I'm not actually that interested in getting to know. Maybe these days I'll end up censoring myself more when it comes to posting things publicly. This is a bit sad to contemplate.

87. Do you feel intimated with starting a new projects?

Not really.

88. Are you scared of your art regressing? Do you think it's even possible to get worse at art?

I think that you can temporarily regress in art but it's something that comes back easily, like muscle memory. I guess people could build really bad habits and get stuck doing them. Or if you had catastrophic brain/nerve/muscle damage... But this is a pretty rare occasion and I wouldn't use it as a heuristic.

89. Do you frequently make compromises for your work? Does your art come out the way you envision them?

My art usually does come out the way I envision it, though the way I envision it may evolve over time.

90. How well do you manage your mistakes? Do you stress about them?

If I make a mistake I just paint over it. It adds more work but that's OK, I like working.

91. Do you make lists of things you'd like to make? Do you actual commit to them?

This would lead to madness.

92. What is your ultimate goal of your work? Like, is to tell a story, connect with others, or just to enjoy the process?

The goal of my work is to create a picture that I enjoy looking at and enjoyed working on. It would also be nice if lots of people could say "Wow, that's a great picture" and I get 1 million likes on a social media site, but I'm actively trying to un-want that sort of thing.

93. What's something you've recently worked on that you're really proud of?

I've recently been working on a Vtuber model and I'm actually very proud of the fiddly little details that I usually skip.

94. Do you have any dream projects? Have you started on them?

I dream... well, I dream of making a comic. But I never finish making them. There is this extra element of panel design and layout as well as writing a compelling story that stretches out over time that I have no practice in and have had trouble getting started with.

95. Would you prefer unlimited money or unlimited time to make your projects?

If I had unlimited money then I could quit all the money making obligations in life and still spend my lifetime to make art as well as doing everything else that I wanted to do. I think that's enough time for me. On top of that I could afford healthcare.

96. Why do you create art?

Because I want the picture to exist, and because I enjoy the process of making art.

97. Are you happy with what you create?

Generally yes.

98. Do you think everyone should make art?

Ah... hm... I think everyone should have the creative impulse in them somewhere. But I don't think it has to be art that satisfies that.

99. What's advice you'd give to newer artist?

Please for the love of god practice mark-making fundamentals. Unconfident chicken scratchy lines hurt the final art so much, so try to learn it as quickly as possible.

100. When did you finish this? How'd you feel?

I realized that I'm a jerk, lol. And I need to draw some more!