#redrafted

Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital?

Digital! Traditional is fun, better even when it comes to scribbling down ideas and designs and the like because it saves wayy easier and feels more natural to me, but realism SUCKS in traditional. :/ Going for references especially is just hard for me, as is properly lighting and adjusting shading.

How long have you been drawing?

I think I officially took an invested interest in the fourth grade (like 2009? I think?) when for whatever reason I got into the Warriors series and decided to use the classroom resources to draw a portrait of every single character in it. I don’t have a lot of art left from then though, because most things were on loose leaf paper (my mom tossed em) or in some random notebooks so idk?

How many classes have you taken?

None that the school system hadn’t provided, but I was in art class from second or third grade until fifth, and then in sixth grade I took creative arts, and in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade i took a semester of art each. I also went to art club fairly regularly which helped too. Largely though, I actually taught myself via Deviantart tutorials and similar resources!

Do you have a DeviantArt, personal website, or art blog?

My dA is lilliparadox, and my art blog is @cinalilli​!

Fun fact: That is actually my third dA; the first one was bluepatch5556 (it’s still there; i made it in 2010) but I was forced to abandon it by my dad. I never uploaded anything tho. My second (cinaparadox) my dad deleted too.

What’s your favorite thing to draw?

I love painting eyes and hair. Flowy fabric is also pretty fun. Other than that, blocking is also pretty fun! I love just...coloring, it’s great. :D

What’s your least favorite thing to draw?

Unless I’m trying a new style kinda thing, I hate lineart. I also get pretty ornery about legs/stuff below the bust/torso, and feet. Ugh.

How often do you use references?

When I’m drawing a new species or pose. Most of the time it’s just for color, though. (I need to get my hands on a wider variety of faces for practice ;;;)

Do you draw professionally, or just for fun?

Just for fun, but I’d like to eventually draw for a living! 

How much time do you spend drawing on an average day?

During school, I’m mostly just sketching (I average about 1 hour put together during classes on a good day) and at home sometimes I can spare an hour or two

When out of school, I could just draw for like four to six hours with little to no consequences and it is lit

Are you confident about your art?

Right now, I’m pretty confident yeah! It lacks some elements in atmosphere that you’d see in maybe more professional works, but I have a pretty good handle on color at least!

My shadows make no sense tho

How many art-related blogs do you follow?

um, idk? I try to make it a point to follow all the art blogs and reference blogs I can, though. 

Is it okay for people to ask you about your process?

PLEASE OMG

I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED SOMEONE TO ASK ME HOW I DO HTINGS

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY DREAM TO HAVE PPL ASK ME FOR TUTORIALS LIKE IVE BEEN ACCRUING ALL THIS KNOWLEDGE AND I WANT TO TEACH PPL THE WAY I WAS TAUGHT AND SHARE MY WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE AND THE THINGS IVE LEARNED TO HELP PPL OUT OMGGG

Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people?

I love drawing things for other people! It gives me practice drawing different things!

Do you ever collaborate with others?

Im actually doing a collab project right now!

How long does an average piece take you to complete?

Most things take about two-three hours to complete, unless it’s stupid complex lol

Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less?

I drew a decent amount less, especially considering how much this week I’ve worked haha

Do you think you’re justified in giving other people art advice?

Pretty justified. I don’t know a ton about anatomy, but I do know a decent chunk about figures as far as I know?

Especially when it comes to technique, I’d say? 

I’m no expert but there’s usually something that I can find for improvement!

What are you currently trying to improve on?

My anatomy and shading abilities

Same thing with my color choice. I’m experimenting with that especially right now

What is the most difficult thing for you to draw?

Either eyes or mouths? They make or break the style of a drawing, usually, and it’s often hard for me to get the right tone, yknow?

Figure-wise feet stink too

What is the easiest thing for you to draw?

Most of the time, hair

I consider myself pretty good at noses too

Do you like to challenge yourself?

All the time

Are you confident that you’re improving steadily?

Totally! I feel like it’s a lot more gradual than sudden, but looking back to even just last year, I’ve improved a lot!

Do you draw more fanart, or more original art?

omg SO much more fanart!!!

I should probably draw more original art but when inspiration strikes it strikes, yknow?

Do you feel jealous when you see other people’s art, or inspired? (Be honest!)

It mostly depends on who they are and my relationship with them. Do I know them? No? Then I have no idea what they struggled with or anything like that so I’m often more inspired to try and emulate them, especially they have a process that I can model after

Once I know what they struggled with though, it just;;; stokes my jealousy lol

Do you like to draw in silence, or with music?

With music, all the way

For digital artists: what program(s) do you use?

Photoshop, mostly

I used to use GIMP, but when I got my new computer I also got Photoshop, so I didn’t reinstall Photoshop

I may reinstall it to finish some projects but I don’t really want to rn so

For digital artists: how many layers does a typical piece require?

When it’s something like my @askholytalia​ stuff, it normally takes about 10-20 layers (depending on how many characters are in it)

For small paintings, it normally takes about 30-40 layers

For “big” projects, where I’m trying something new or where tehre’s a lot going on in the bg, it takes anywhere from 80-100+

My biggest project atm is about 140 layers!! I don’t merge them for some reason!! ;w;

For traditional artists: what medium do you like most? (Pencil, charcoals, etc)

Pencil and paper but when i have access to it, I prefer acrylics? I haven’t painted for fun in them much tho so

For traditional artists: How do you usually start on a big piece? (Light sketch, colored lead, sketchpaper, etc)

Normally I just jump right into the light sketch and I refine it from there

What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist?

There’s the thrill of seeing myself improve

It’s fun!

I like it when people like it!! I love watching my art make other people as happy as it makes me!

It all started with a perfectly arced three-pointer at the buzzer to win the game. Well, if there’d been a buzzer. If there’d been a game, as opposed to a single shooter on a playground with faded paint competing with grass to crack the pavement. It was one of those moments where time stands still for everyone -- the ball in the air, eyes drawing a dotted line straight through the net, faces frozen in the same expression despite differing motivations of elation or fear -- and I was thinking about him. More precisely, I was trying to remember how we met. I remember how we met, of course -- I’ve told the story a thousand times. It’s a great story, the thing a thousand romantic comedies are made of. But what tripped me up was whether I actually remembered meeting him, or just remembered the story. Memory’s funny that way. I think I remember moments from childhood, but really I only remember the stories that have been told about the moment repeatedly -- my own life’s urban legends. Perhaps this is one of those as well. Perhaps, in the telling and retelling, I’ve made it so, made it grander than what it was, imparted far more significance to it than it ever had at the time. There’s really nothing special about it absent the “and they lived happily ever after” payoff. As that ball reached the peak of its arc, I remembered how my story had been colored by his side of it. My memories weren’t of my feelings and thoughts in isolation, and they never would be -- his were included as well. I was a storyteller. Had I been telling this story so long that it had ceased to be a memory, and instead become a story that I could control and alter at whim to suit my fancy? As the ball began to descend, I realized the story was the most beautiful thing to come of the relationship -- that I’d held onto the relationship as long as I had to do justice to the story. Perhaps I’d watched too many movies, but it seemed that any story with an opening that strong needed an equally strong finish. The finale shouldn’t let down the start and the whole should have a triumphant message that somehow included the word fate. The ball swished the net and I realized I was more committed to the story than I was to him, and that I was an unreliable narrator. If I was the shooter, that ball would’ve bounced off the rim. I am the shooter, and this is my story.