RULES:

Answer each question in as much detail as you like. Skip anything you don't know or would prefer not to answer. (Original meme by @/Smob)

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

Oh lord, too many fhdhf 😬 I've always struggled w maintaining a consistent online identity/moniker, and the usernames i jumped between (or managed multiple at the same time) reflect that

I think I still struggle with that a bit tbh :'V

2. What does your current username mean?

DigiRhys = DigiJacks (Borderlands the Pre-Sequel) + Rhys (Tales From the Borderlands)

I'm a huuuuge fan of the BL games and Rhys and Jack in particular are some of my fav characters✌🏻

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

OUGH probably ms Paint w a mouse on my aunt's computer lol!!! I used to make shitty little pixels and scribble/binary art (fun fact (sarcasm): it is a massive artist pet peeve of mine when ppl call binary art pixel art instead, and i feel like a massive asshole bc of How Irritated it makes me lmao)

Around the same time i started playing w photoshop on my mom's computer & her wacom at the time :0

4. Where did you first start posting your art?

Neopets & FB, but neopets would rly be the first public space i was sharing anything lol

I was aaaaaalways on the RP boards, or messaging friends, or RPing and drawing stuff for the RP guilds i was in :'3 one in particular was a "pixel pets" guild that actually still exists on the site!!! But....everyone involved is ofc long gone from neo ;w; the hollow remnants of what once was, it's v bittersweet. I do still have aaaaallll the old pixel art i made for it, though, + some of the stuff gifted from friends at the time!

Eventually migrated from neo to dA in my pre-teens :0

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

Oh christ. I was gonna go check my first dA but i realized well before that (still during my neo era) I was writing n drawing self-insert OC fic w my best friend and our Teen Titans characters GHSJFBFHDH, so. Lmao. Teen Titans :'V

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

See above LMAO my friend n i had incredibly silly self-insert Teen Titans OCs we wrote into elaborate scenarios w the main cast (she had a mad crush on Robin lol >w>). We made them fire/ice themed bc we liked the elemental friends cliche + she's a natural redhead and at the time i was a natural blond + obsessed w water n ice (pisces baaaybeeee i am still obsessed w those lol)

For some reason i was also weirdly fixated on giving her a name that matched her initials????? Samantha Ashley McKenzie n she went by Sam :'U

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

Tbh Ive only had a handful of true self-insert/persona characters in my life, and the concept of creating a person has gotten increasingly less appealing as ive gotten older, sadly :'V like, i love the idea of having a persona/fursona to draw instead of myself, but the process of making one w that being the intent has always made me viscerally uncomfortable when i try ;__; it freaks me out when I'm trying to draw "me"

That said, i can recall one OC that was p much a 1-to-1 insert of myself on an old sci-fi RP forum called iAnti-Virus, who was the first character i think i jokingly played w genderswaps with, and made them a guy. My first real steps into acknowledging and exploring my gender n sexuality (even if not intentionally/consciously)

I think the closest i come nowadays to anything resembling a sona is drawing Victor and Rory :0

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

Oh i went through the v traditional Anime Phase in middle and high school and was one of countless victims of the Chris Hart books GHSJFHFH (half joking)

I went through a number of other stages of emulating smaller artists i admired (Katie Tiedrich aka AwkwardZombie, komorichu aka GhostKomori/ChaosKomori on neopets & dA, tons of others), and continued doing that sorta thing in college too lol :V

I wouldnt call "watercolour" a phase bc that's. A medium, not a style, to me lol. I havent picked up a brush in a while but I did watercolour as part of my illustration coursework in art school👍🏻 would love to start doing that again after my bf and i get moved n settled in after the end of the month – we'll have way better natural light lol

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

Stealing :VVV

What's the Picasso quote, "good artists borrow, great artists steal"? Direct observation and practice are the best ways any artists learns. Anyone who says you can't trace or use references is a liar and the devil and dont ever listen to them, if you see someone doing something in a way you love, take that shit and study it!!! Dissect it!!! I'm not further disclaiming that I'm not ur parent iykyk

Imo a lot of art is trial n error and very vibes based (one of my drawing professors always used to say along the lines of "it's more important that a drawing looks right, rather than drawing it 100% accurate". Sometimes you know you've drawn something wrong anatomically, for example, but it LOOKS right or better that way and, tbh, most ppl looking won't know it's "wrong" lol)

I'm sure if someone were to catalogue all my old art and lay out a timeline you'd be able to see the ways in which different artists impacted my style as i got older (the way i drew changed a LOT depending on what artists i fawned over at any given moment lol). I only really feel like it's been since i clawed out of my art block a few years ago that my art looks like "mine" vs a mimicry of someone else's – but i know there are still pieces of others in my art bc, well, that's how i learned! :0

Lost track of the question from my soap box lmao uhhh anyway i dont think there's any specific one thing or person that's influenced my style. My attention flits around constantly even now and I'll draw on artists I find doing cool shit w brushes, line weight, texture, etc. Big fuckin......katamari ball of art styles lmao

10. What/who inspired you to be an artist?

I'm one of those "Oh i always wanted to be an artist" kids but also v much my grandma, i think, at my earliest. I think she had wished she couldve been a professional artist vs hobbyist, and i actually went to art school at the school she had WANTED to go to, but couldn't. She was immensely talented and did acrylic, oil, and watercolour painting, pastels (oil & chalk), and mosaics! I have v fond memories of helping her with mosaics, and everyone in my family has at least a cross from her (I'm not v religious at this point in my life, but it's still v dear to me. My mom has one of her lazy susans too, and my aunt has a GIANT mosaic of the 3 wise men and star above the couch that's monstrously heavy lmao)

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

• DIGITAL: ipad, procreate (pixquare if pixel art). I am a filthy brush hoarder i dont EVEN wanna talk abt how many brushes ive got ;___; HOWEVER my go-to's for sketching/lining are the Tilt Sketcher Soft + Hard, Blunt Waxer, and Oiler from the Chromagraph set from True Grit Texture Supply (HIGHLY recommend all their brushes n textures, they can be pricey but theyre amazing tools).
  For flats n coloring I use the Gouache Clean from the Gouache v2 MaxPack (also pricey, but again highly recommended if u can afford it), and some of the brushes from Devin Kurtz's free Rake Brushset (THIS IS UR SIGN TO GO DOWNLOAD ALL OF DEVIN'S BRUSHES THEY'RE ALL FREE THEY'RE ALL FANTASTIC THEY'RE AVAILABLE FOR **CSP, PS, AND PROCREATE!!**🩵🩵🩵)
• TRADITIONAL: p much just 0.3 and 0.5 mechanical pencils!! I dont do traditional art nearly as much as i used to which is sad bc i am. Traditionally Taught ghshfh i have the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for some inking I just havent used it in a while, it's a great brush tho✌🏻 when i start doing watercolour again I'll probably use cold press paper bc that was my preferred type when i did big paintings (i have an Arches Cold Press block of paper i havent opened... I'll probably use that to get back into the swing of it once we're moved up)

12. What improvements have you made recently?

Oh boy. Uh. Idk honestly i am my own worst critic not just in the sense i tend to be v overly critical abt my stuff, but also in that i am just Really Bad at noticing positive changes (it's always easier to notice the stuff going wrong v right, i think most artists can attest to that lol)

13. What steps would you like to take in the future?

Getting back into painting!! More traditional stuff in general! I think it'll be good for me skill-wise and mentally to do more Offline Art again lol I also want to get a tattoo apprenticeship, and i need to strengthen the traditional skills that have gotten v weak doing almost exclusively digital for the last few years :0