Formspring, Interview, and Fanart Question!

Interview at AllArtSupport. It's short but sweet! Thank you to for interviewing me!

FORMSPRING Got one! Feel free to ask me anything! Feel free to ask me anything about my art, tools of the trade, work, college, or rl! ^^ And if you want to ask me about Omniverse, feel free to do so. XD I'll try not to be spoilery!

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One day, long ago, I got a question from the lovely moderator of . Such a good question, and one that I had never been asked before. Normally my answers are rather short, but as I answered, it started getting a little bit more involved… My bad. ^^

Is it considered a conflict for you to see fan based concept art of cartoons your working on much like the way writers can never read fan fiction?

In a short answer, no, it does not. However, there are always exceptions. It's not a personal conflict, but sometimes there are business conflicts that I take into consideration. WARNING: my views might be very candid. If you like candid opinions, read on!

I encourage people to draw what they like, to show support for their fandom, as that's a way to get people who otherwise might not watch the show, to be introduced to it. Fanart and fanfiction can be a way to affirm your love for a certain show, movie, video game and bring you connections that you might otherwise never had. It can bring you into a world where there are people who are just like you. I'm probably biased because I grew up on the internet and went through all the stages.

If we're talking purely visual stuff, it can be imaginative or not. I could care less what it is really, but for me, I'm the type of person who gets more excited about expanding universes rather than just drawing characters that already exist.

Of course, that's not me saying that drawing characters that already exist is mindless, gosh no. I mean that's like half my gallery. The first things I ever drew were characters that already existed. I think the first things I really remember drawing were Yugioh characters. I just drew them over and over again without really having the thought in my mind of getting better as an artist. I just drew them because I thought they looked cool. Shows you where my priorities were.

But when I see the design process or the artists taking changes with an existing property, I'm like, "dude, that is badass!" Since Ben 10 has really been the first and only show on air that I have worked on, I'll just use it as the prime example. If someone were to, let's say, take Ben and Rook, and render them in different styles, like if they were thrust into the world of Samurai Jack or into any anime, I think that'd be sweet. If people changed their gender, (you know who you are! *wink*) then whatevs! Just a normal part of the fandom in my opinion.

But I'm also a fan of OC's as well. So for example, a lot of people seem to really like Rook Blonko, Ben's partner in the current series. And that's awesome!!! I'm a huge fan myself. When I see artists (amateur or professional) taking stabs at what his family looks like or drawing him as a kid, or what they think Revonnah, his home planet, looks like; I really get excited. I lovelovelove it when people like a character so much, that they can think, imagine, envision other aspects of his/her life that doesn't exist yet or hasn't yet been revealed. Yeah, you might be wrong, especially when a future episode proves you wrong, but you thought about it, which is shows that you can think beyond what is there or what is shown to you. Fanfiction or fanart, gifs or memes, doesn't matter.

For example, when I did my renditions of TF Prime characters, I only chose names that haven't appeared yet. I think the only character that showed up that I had done was Shockwave, and boy did my version look nothing like he turned out to be. XD I love existing characters like Ratchet and Wheeljack, but I have no interest in drawing them. My first love is to create, not to emulate.

I know that OC's sometimes get a bad rap, which is unfortunate, but in my case, sometimes they're the characters that I like the best. That's why, when you look through my gallery, you'll notice that a lot my new stuff, are character sheets, re-designs, etc…  They're not existing characters, but they exist to me.

Anyways, here's when the candid stuffs begin. ^^

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And of course, there is the others side of fanart, which I think addresses the question a little more closely. And remember, this is my opinion. Not the Ben 10 team's or Warner Bros, or Cartoon network, just me. The only times where fanart might potentially make my eyes roll (in amusement, horror, or in resignation) are the following.



It looks terrible
The overall design, the execution, composition, etc... Kinda self explanatory. I'm not trying to say that everything has to look fabulous, but if it looks bad, it looks bad. I've done a lot of terrible work. But that's how I got better. You can't polish a turd, but if you could, it would probably still smell terrible. You could try to put perfume on it to cover it up, but that begs the question… why did you just put perfume on a turd?



OC's look/sound/read like you just don't care. HOLLA!
As I said before, in general, I like OC's. However, when they're made just to be a romantic interest to a main character, or their backstories seem so utterly impossible, then it starts getting strange to me. I design OC's all the time, but that exist within an existing universe. I love shows like Green Lantern and Korra, so I design characters for them. They don't exist, but sometimes I attempt to make them fit, sometimes I don't, but what I try to do always is make them stand on their own if I can. And of course, a lot of these are purposely meant to be incidentals, so I don't delve too deep. Examples below.



So for an example, let's just use Young Justice. I think everyone knows that Wally is with Artemis, and it seems that they've been happy for quite the while. If someone were to, I don't know, create a character that Wally had a fling with during his relationship with Artemis for the direct purpose of him having a relationship JUST CUZ,  it's like… what? Oh… and she's also a doe-eyed purple-skinned silken boob's-a-bulgin' Amazonian vampire who can read people's auras? And her name is Lithurrzzna?  

Goddammit.



Extremely Underage Porn
I don't care if you like porn or pr0nz, but porn with 10 year olds? C'mon son!

For a time, the Ben 10 tag on Tumblr was seemingly nothing but it, which heavily featured Young Ben and Young Gwen, sometimes their Grandpa (Grandpa Max? ARE YOU SERIOUS!?). I mean, c'mon dude… who the hell draws this stuff? I mean, if you drew them older, it's still quite terrible, as they're cousins, but seriously, they're 10 years old. 10! In all honesty, If I could punch these people in the face through their computer screen, I would.

And if you are one of those people and you're reading this, no, I'm not going to punch you, as I am not a violent person. I might look at you and shake my head, but that's the extent of how far I'd go.

Just think of it like this. You have a bathroom. If it's a nice bathroom, you think nothing of it. If it were a terrible looking bathroom, trash everywhere, you would never want to return again, and you'll always remember it, it'll leave a bad taste in your mouth. It's so bad that you probably wouldn't care if you also added to the debris, throwing a napkin on the floor, regardless of the fact that you just LITTERED. There are just some people who make it so hard for newbies to enter a fandom because first impressions are important. And if all you see is extremely underage porn of your favorite characters, you might feel unwelcome and drive you away, and that lies at the heart of why I get pissed off at some pieces of work. Also, THEY'RE 10! Do you have a heart?

Needless to say, at the onset of Omniverse, suddenly the Ben 10 tag was filled with non-porn stuffs! It finally had the chance to grow into something more tasteful, to draw in more people who don't have a constant fear of something traumatizing showing up on the screen. Of course, it still happens, as it does with all fandoms, but you can just hit the ignore button or report the deviation.

I'm a free spirit. You draw whatever you want, as I believe in freedom of expression. You want to draw furries having picnics at the beach? Go ahead. Fairies and dragons making sweet, sweet love to each other? M'kay. You can only draw ladies naked and in sexual poses? Sure. (But… seriously? That's all you draw? Why don't you draw some fruit? No…. not sexy fruit!)

However, if you can't draw the line between toddlers/young children at having sexual relationships with each other and or adults, then I am stumped.

STUMPED.



Haters
It might seem weird to you, but haters can also create pieces of fanart. To do what exactly? To spew hate of course!

You think that they'd spend time doing something more productive rather than trying to make a de-motivational that's obviously hate rather than humor, or to justify that their opinion is the only thing that matters in life. Trying to fight/reason against a hater is like trying to hug a cactus.

You'll only end of hurting yourself while the cactus laughs at you. And believe me, they do.

Sneaky bastards.

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However, remember, it's just my personal taste. When I was younger, I had a different mindset. I would just draw whatever I wanted because I wanted to. I'd draw because it was fun, not because I was trying to get better. But in hindsight, it helped become better, because I wanted to draw and not because I was forced to.

BUT LET'S GET ONE THING STRAIGHT.
This is not me warning you to not post your art or trying to make you feel bad. I'm not a limits person and I couldn't stop you if you tried. If you're proud of something and want people to see it, post it. If you're ashamed of something… then uh… don't post it?

Also… just to warn you. The people who work on these shows that you love? Everything that you draw that's posted on tumblr, deviantart, google results, we'll probably come across. Sometimes we print it out and put it on a fanart wall. Sometimes we reblog things. We pretty much see everything.

EVERYTHING.

So yeah, it was a simple question, yet I stretched it out as long as I could. Typical me. XD If you've read some journal entries before, you know I can get quite rambly...

Comments and thoughts are welcome!

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Articles in the past month that I thought were interesting below! Just to get your brain juices flowing. The planet's one is awesome!

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