What is your preferred medium for creating art?
Drawing, whether it's pen and paper or using a digital drawing pad. I've tried other stuff, like painting or using charcoal, but it wasn't meshing with me. I feel like I'm better with pen and paper, but I feel like I can manage a more professional look with digital.
What inspires you to draw?
I just like to create. I have characters that I like to create, or different poses and scenes I'd want to see different already created characters in. Just knowing that I have stuff out in the world that's mine makes me feel good about myself.
When did you start creating art?
Forever ago, in one way or another. I remember this really crappy drawing of Sonic that I did that my mom liked, or drawing Link from Legend of Zelda out of this drawing book. I literally can't remember a time where I wasn't interested in drawing in some way or another.
Who is the artist that influenced you the most?
There's been so many. Arin Hanson, aka Egoraptor on YouTube, was a big push for me to get into animating, but animation kinda just turned into drawing in general. An account on Instagram called Colorreaper uses a lot of different crazy and dynamic poses that I'd like to learn to emulate more. I think in the beginning the most significant inspiration was my brother. He drew a lot and tried to teach me when I was younger. I think my idol, in terms of artists, just kinda changes as I and my art grows.
What’s the one place that you want your art to be seen the most?
I haven't thought about that really. Just for it to be shared through all kinds of people, that'd be pretty nice. I guess if anything, I'd like to learn to properly animate and work on a show, or if I could illustrate for a book cover or something like that, that'd be really cool. Again, I haven't put too much thought into where I want my art seen, right now I just want it seen.
For those artists that are just starting out, what kind of advice would you give them?
One piece of advice that you'll hear from pretty much any artist is to practice your art daily. Even if it's small things, try to draw something everyday, because it's a talent that can get stale fast if you take too long of a break.
I guess another piece would be to explore other forms of art that are similar, like since I draw, I also try to get into photography a bit as well. It can give you a new way of looking at a scene or picture, that way your drawings don't get too stagnant. And of course, don't beat yourself up, because I know first hand that I tell myself my art isn't as good as it could be, or I'll see a small detail that's just not exactly perfect, but just learn from your mistakes and do better next time.
What are your 3 road trip songs?
I usually work in "The Mystic Crystal" by Ninja Sex Party. It's a fun song with a high fantasy feel, it's also 12 minutes long, so if you're with other people, don't pick the 12 minute long song.
"Roll With It" by TWRP is a just a good feeling song. It has that feel like someone could use it while doing a driving montage in a movie.
My third song would either be "Miserable at Best" or "Haruka Kanata" both would be covers by Natewantstobattle. I like his cover of "Miserable at Best" for his own voice, because whether he has his own connection to the song or not, you can really hear his passion in the song. As for "Haruka Kanata" it just brings me maximum nostalgia of watching Naruto with my friends. I'll play that one on repeat for a while when I come across it.
Where can we find you?
My handle on pretty much everything should be @MandoPandaBear, I'm most active on Instagram, but I'm trying to get Twitter and Tumblr, but I don't like Twitter and I've never used Tumblr until now, so it's the difficulties of working with a new app.
Comments