i got this 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!)

depends on the site! i’ve had quite a few on tumblr, especially because i have sideblogs, but i’ve only ever been polarpace in most places!

What does your current username mean?

the polar part is in reference to polar bears, since i love them! the pace part is about how i tend to pace when i have a thought or idea that excites me, and it helps get the gears in my head turning.

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

i think mspaint? i used to scribble things all the time with my mouse on my family’s windows XP computer, back when family computers were a common thing XD it also meant that i never saved any of what i made, though. iirc it was mostly me trying to make weird abstract rainbows out of lines and shapes, but it would have been interesting to look back on.

Where did you first start posting your art?

around 2016 i think? i don’t actually fully remember, those late 2010 years kinda blend together for me haha

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

spyro, i believe. i have a little handmade book i made back when i was a kid that seems to be a retelling of spyro 3’s story. there’s no date on it, but other things it was stored with seem to be from the same year as each other, so i’m assuming it’s from the same year too. and it’s all the oldest art (and stuff from school) that i have!

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

my first character was meant to be a spyro kind-of self-insert, if that counts? she was a red, yellow, and green dragon with brown hair and a necklace with a gem. you know the whole thing about imagining beasts and fictional characters running alongside the car as you look out the window? she was like that to me.

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

if polar counts, he’s kind of like a mascot to me more than a representation of myself. a bit of a stand-in for places where you would put yourself. i made him purposefully easy for me to draw and gave him enough wacky cartoon logic so that i could put him in any situation i wanted. it’s more like i’m playing with dolls than trying to make the perfect depiction of myself. conversely, the dragon character i was talking about was one that i projected a lot onto.

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

my art started off cartoony, but i would sort of just draw a character’s head and then make their body a rectangle. i had no idea how to do limbs or hands/feet so i would kinda scribble in a way that vaguely looked like them XD then i got insecure about not knowing anatomy so i tried to study super hard, which helped me improve but i kept making my art super stiff. my art was never quite “realistic” per se, but i was absolutely overcompensating and avoiding being super cartoony. in the past year or two though, i’ve been trying to return to my roots a bit and make my art more dynamic and silly. i want to draw funny cartoons again!

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

the ps1 spyro trilogy has been a massive influence on my art, and something that i’m trying to study a bit more now that i’m looking to go back to my roots. pizza tower and antonblast have been fascinating to me lately as well, stylistically. their styles are quite a bit different, but both have a lot of pizazz to them that i find motivational on terms of the style i'm going for lately. a lot of cartoons i’ve watched have also influenced my art, things like wander over yonder and rise of the tmnt!! i feel like i have a lot of influences, and every new media i check out teaches me something new about art :D

also, warrior cats amvs. i cannot emphasize enough how much those influenced me, and how the community’s creativity still inspires me to this day. especially this one (blood warning!) back in the day.

What/who inspired you to be an artist?

when i was really young i was watching catdog on TV (specifically the first episodes), and my brother came in and told me, “you know that people draw this stuff by hand, right?” and explained animation to me. i was really taken aback by this, because i hadn’t considered it before. it made me realize that a bunch of other stuff i liked was the same way. later that day, i started to draw a “storyboard” on a bunch of post-it notes of a dog character i had made. i don’t remember how the story went, but i do still have that character to this day :)

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

i use clip studio paint and mspaint, and my workflow in those is down pretty solid at this point. sometimes i sketch in mspaint and bring it into CSP, which i’ve found helps me keep poses more dynamic and makes me less worried about perfection if that’s preventing me from getting started. i tend to use references as well!

What improvements have you made recently?

i’ve been worrying less about my art being perfect! been trying to go with the flow, loosen up a bit in some areas. my backgrounds are slowly becoming more and more like how i want them to be, which is exciting!

What steps would you like to take in the future?

fully shed my perfectionism, and try to make some hard decisions in regards to my OCs’ designs that have been making it difficult to design them for years. more silliness too! i used to do so much funny art of everything, but kinda stopped over the years and usually don’t post them.