taken from @smobs

RULES:
Answer each question in as much detail as you like. Skip anything you don't know or would prefer not to answer.

How many usernames have you had? (You don't have to share them!)

Three if you only count the art account name.

What does your current username mean?

Capricorn (my astrological sign) and manticore, a lion-like creature because lions were my first favorite animals.

What is the first program you used to make digital art?

Mspaint on windows 7 because I liked it when people would make their OCs go on adventures through homemade animations that were basically slideshows of drawings with occasional movement. I didn't know that you're not supposed to use the bucket tool to fill something you drew with the paint brush, you're meant to use the pencil because both are strictly pixel art tools.

Where did you first start posting your art?

Deviantart for better and for worse.

What is the first piece of media you drew fanart for?

For traditional art it was Lilo and Stitch, Lion King and Spyro. For digital art it was Spyro when I got my first tablet, and I still have the picture somewhere on the family pc.

Who was your first self-insert/persona/fursona? What did they mean to you?

I technically had two at the same time, one was a TLOS Spyro knockoff with a small scar on her forehead due to having a similar injury in real life. She was just meant to be me and liked eating pickles.
The other was a pink tinted purple dragon with brown bangs. A super early version of her had blank pupil-less eyes because I wanted to make her look "odd" and make other dragons around her think she looked ugly, a projection of my 10 year old self who grew up as the unpopular kid, sometimes other kids made fun of my teeth. That design only lasted a few days LOL.
She only had bangs because I saw everyone online make their OCs and sonas with wild emo hair and I wanted to do the same to fit in even though I didn't understand anything, and the fact that I never had bangs in real life and never plan to. I didn't grow up with anything emo, not even goth. It wasn't until 2020 that I drew her with my actual ponytail and widow's peak. That sona was a dragon because I love dragons, but I'm not JUST a dragon person, you know?
She was the "leader" of most of the dragons I had made in Spore, they were all friends and would go through slice of life events, since I didn't have meaningful friends that lasted as a young kid. She had the friends I wished I had, and she didn't have the chronic illness I wish I didn't have. It's her that I would draw when I wanted to represent myself with the friends I did eventually get, but she was projection extreme.

Who is your current self-insert/persona/fursona? How are they different to your first?

Capri the manticore, she's closer to my truer self and what I'm learning to accept about myself. She's more pink, and lion-like because my first favorite animals were lions, while still being a fantastical flying beast. Something about her feels less... sad and bitter overall?

What phases/styles has your art gone through? (e.g. Did you have an anime era, a cartoon style, a watercolour phase?)

Drawing on paper as a kid, it was always cartoony despite me wanting to be able to make things more detailed, but not in a "can see every pore on the skin" way. I made homemade action figures out of paper, they could open their mouth, and I don't mean 2d cutout, I'm talking like almost a toy doll but paper, but not origami (I still have them actually, and I even updated their design, added some layers of paper and glue so they can stand up on their own).
When I was about 10 I got my first drawing tabled ever and it was still cartoony, but I wanted to be able to draw things more accurate to how they were actually shaped, if that makes sense? And even still, I was very intimidated because I didn't understand how digital art works and what layers were, because you can't make layers in msPaint!
I never had an anime era, I drew Death The Kid once and I think that pic is gone. There were a few pokemon I drew but that was it. Actually I'm surprised I never drew anything Full Metal Alchemist even though that was my first anime that wasn't pokemon or hamtaro LOL.
Around 13 years old I picked up my tablet and drew again but then I found out some of my art got posted on one of those "cringe art" blogs. I learned how bat wings are shaped, but I wish it had not been because I was scared of being mocked.
In my late teens I also started using pencils and watercolor pencils because I wanted to visualize what a character's colors would be like so it was very useful for concept art. Something about drawing on paper feels less tiring sometimes.
I'd say my usual style has some fun of the cartoony-ness, but semi realistic as in inspired by how things usually look like.

What/who do you think has influenced your art style the most?

Spyro (both ps1 and Legend), The Lion King, Dragonology... There's probably more but I don't want to be put in a box.

What/who inspired you to be an artist?

I always wanted to tell stories with actual pictures, I'm a very visual person. When I was super young I made a book about fishes, whose title translates to "The Return of The Fishes" and I remember asking my mom to be my scribe because I couldn't write that much back then. As a kid I used to think that art could only ever be made on a canvas with paint and that your skill had to be at the level of Leonardo Da Vinci, which made me discouraged from drawing seriously.

What tools are integral to your current workflow? (e.g. Programs, brushes, references.)

Paint Tool Sai because it's super easy for me to understand and the way it works feels like I'm drawing on paper, without the pressure and stress of irreversible mistakes. I like intuitive programs, if I can't understand anything without a guide, that thing is getting OUT of my computer. Also, drawing on paper and scanning the lineart my beloved.

What improvements have you made recently?

Body type diversity and removing needless "sexual dimorphism" in my creatures. I would get stumped on some designs because I followed arbitrary sexual dimorphism "rules" that didn't need to be, and were super binary and western centric. My characters were all so skinny and the ones who were meant to be chubby or fat were actually average at best.

What steps would you like to take in the future?

Learn to not be so scared of disappointing others. Posting more of the doodles I make of my characters, show that it's okay for art to be raw. Not everything has to look professional and clean from the get-go. You know, the usual, nothing that special. I had other things written down but I lost everything the first time I answered this meme because the page refreshed by the time I pressed "send", and I forgot what it was since then.