Ask the Artist: Deadpetsparky
Hi there!
Dear fairygrrl45 asked me so nicely if I wanted to do the Ask the artist for this month, I couldn’t say no. And thus here I am rambling about my work and maybe some of you will throw a few questions at me and I will try to answer as truthfully as I can.
So, tell us a bit about yourself. Anything.
Name: Sonja
Age: 22
Hometown: Berlin, Germany
Profession: College student, soon-to-be -archivist, part-time worker at a movie theater.
Pets: My dear cat Peter and I guess the pigeons crowding my balcony. I named one Sparky, actually…Now I wonder if Carlos’ lost pet was a pigeon…hmmm…Maybe I should do fanart about that. Ideas, ideas…
Dreams: To invent a cure for allergies against melons, because I looove them but they give me nasty skin eruption, eww…;
To learn another language like Finnish or Polish, but mehh! Too lazy for that;
To spell it “favorite” instead of “favourite” on the first try. I blame my English teacher in high school for that one…
Anything else? Could someone please start to import Reese’s over here? Pretty please?
How'd you get into art in the fandom?
Well, I love BTR. Touchy-feely, pretty boys, who sing and dance and do ridiculous things on screen, what’s there not to like about them? So it was clear to me that I had to get over myself and finally join Livejournal to be an active part of the web community.
And, yeah, I remembered a time I did fanart for other fandoms all the time and thought ‘why not starting again with BTR?’ So I just did without really thinking about it.
Also, I discovered it’s actually a lot of fun to talk about similar interests with people from all over the world. It’s sometimes like visiting another country/ continent and experiencing culture shock, but mostly in a good way of course. I still can’t thank you guys enough for introducing me to Mochi Balls. <3
What tools do you use to create? (Images if you would please?) Favorite medium?
I mostly rely on simple sketch blocks and pencils with different ranges of hardness. I hardly use anything else than soft pastels, colored pencils, chalks and charcoal pencils. Sometimes I do art with Chinese ink, manga copic markers and/ or watercolors, but these sorts of tools are really expensive and require much time and patience I usually don’t have. XD
Who is your favorite boy/pairing to draw in BTR and why?
Oh, I try not to fancy one over the other, because I like them all equally. But I must admit that James is by far the easiest target. His face is really symmetric and of some kind of simple beauty. It’s relatively easy to draw him compared to Kendall for example. Kendall has a really interesting face of understated beauty, for me he’s the most attractive one out of all the boys. I can’t see enough of his face! Even with his new hairstyle he’s still my most inspiring muse, hahahaha.
I really wish I would be able to do his face justice in fanart. I failed so far. ;~;
[Urgh...x.X]
As to pairings I regularly do art about James and Logan for the monthly prompts at logan_james. Anything else depends on my mood and the inspiration I get from watching BTR episodes, reading fanfics or stalking LJ, Tumblr and DeviantArt.
Do you read or write to get inspiration? How does that translate to visual representations of ideas and emotions?
Some fanfictions are a good source of inspiration for sure. A few authors are able to provoke different feelings I’m left to ponder about for a ridiculous long time. They help to create a picture in my head that is some kind of manifestation of what I felt while reading. And sometimes the ideas I get for art are vague images of scenes in the story I was particularly impressed with.
(Does that even make sense? I don’t know how to describe it better.)
Strangely enough I never actually did a fanart based on a particular fanfiction, although I often get ideas for art while reading. They’re constantly in the back of my mind, like a really persistent itch you can’t reach, haha.
What does your general technique look like? (Images please!)
I actually came prepared for once, hee. For better understanding I put together a little picspam with pictures of my latest fanart of Vampire!James. I used my most favorite technique which includes the use of crayons, pastels and charcoal pencils.
Here you go:
- I do a simple sketch in my notepad to transfer the picture floating in my head to paper. I just do simple outlines with these little lines to determine where to put facial features.
- I sketch basic forms of facial features to decide if the anatomy looks reasonably correct (or not).
- I take a new piece of paper and actually try to sketch properly. Oftentimes I change the final sketch a little bit in the process. I try to draw as clean as possible as not to be confused by straying lines while coloring.
- I start with the lightest color possible to shade a simple form of three-dimensionality keeping the light source in mind. To spread the color I use my fingers, it’s quite a mess sometimes. You can probably imagine how often I’m forced to wash my hands in the process.
- From then on I go on with darker colors until…
- …I’m satisfied enough to start with the details, like eyes, ears and hair. I’m using charcoal pencils to highlight the facial features and detailed parts like clothing patterns and the like.
- I add a background and improve the color intensity here and there.
- Finished! Hurray!
Do you ever get artist's block? (Like writer's block) If so...how do you get out of it?
Like ALL THE F**** TIME! I don’t have any real strategy to get over it, though. I guess artist’s block has a reason, like I’m too nervous, upset etc. to get the creative juices flowing. If that’s the case I just accept it and try another day, week, however long it takes to get it finally done. I note down basic ideas in my notepad to not forget about them and move on for the moment.
It looks mostly like this:
Examples of your own art for us to ogle at?
So, thanks for having me. <3