@Chuw-Croissantier - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe living from your perspective?

// Oof, went through a lot of shit that I have so many descriptions for it, but I think the most accurate one is... a narrow path with hope prevailing at the end. Because it doesn't matter how life treats you, hope will prevail at the end of the day. Just reminding y'all that you're not alone... and if you are, it won't be forever. Just don't let your hope die, and enjoy the small things life has to offer you!

Q: What does it mean to be a Newgrounder?

// Don't have an accurate description, but being a Newgrounder means creating cool stuff, sharing moments with your community, and making friends along the way. Maybe someone else has like a super definition (and possibly triggering some nerds (?), buttt at the moment, that's what I have in mind when describing what a Newgrounder is: a creative person who shares small moments with their community!

How did you discover the NG website?

// Well, when I was a kid, I used to search for something like free games and stuff, especially Sonic. So one day, I was scrolling through Google and found this awesome game... Ultimate Sonic Flash on Newgrounds. I played a little bit and saw the games section, and I was like: "Mmm, it says gems... IT MEANS GAMES!!" (Yeah, the only English word I knew back at that time was "games" because my dad taught me some words and stuff. It was a hard time for little me to guess everything, lmao). Then I clicked on it, and I was in paradise... all types of games and all genres in one place—truly the paradise for kid me. I didn't create a Newgrounds account until 2021 and didn’t upload much—just two drawings of Pico and Boyfriend; that was everything, lmao. I still found some movies out there, like Edd's World and some Pico/Madness animations. I didn’t understand them at all, but I liked them!! My history on the internet is pretty funny, though.

Q: What made you decide to join the community?

// Well, there's no specific reason for it, but I mostly joined to try some things and stuff. Let's say that eventually, after interacting with some people and having fun uploading my content, I started to feel like it was my home. Somehow, I felt that my work was being more appreciated than in other places. Eventually, in my journey, I found the sketch collab, joined, and... I fell more in love with the community, got amazing friends, and an amazing girlfriend (you know who you are! Mwah <3). Soooo if before I liked the community... now I love it and have a big appreciation for it. Truly an amazing community!

Q: Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

// Absolutely! Before, I was like: "Ehhh, it's just another website," but as I said in the previous question, this felt more like my home, and I felt much appreciated. Thank y'all, everyone, for your support. I'll always appreciate it immensely!!

Q: The story of your profile picture

// Ahh... well, it's kind of bittersweet to remember, but it originated from a Minecraft skin. It was a penguin with horns... or croissants. My previous friend group didn't even know either, soooo I just got silly and said they were croissants stuck with tissue (by the way, I had a human sona before). Over time, I felt that this penguin with croissant horns represented me much better than my human sona, soooo I decided to give it an official design. It started as a penguin with a plain green hood, and over time, it just got glasses and a hood inspired by Club Penguin. The concept evolved so much that it became a virtual penguin made in HTML5 that little by little became sentient, and now it materializes in the real world through a robot. What can I say? I loved the concept so much that it evolved from being just a regular penguin to a penguin created in HTML5, lmao. (And yeah... I got inspired by MegaMan Battle Network 6. Those who got the reference before reaching this part... y'all are real ones ;D

Q: How did you get interested in creating art?

// This is another story of kid me. Back in that time, I was a big Sonic fan (still am a big fan) and saw this cool character with a raw design... Mephiles the Dark. For some reason, I had a big obsession with this guy. I searched for a tutorial on how to draw him, and omg... bro started to become an NFT because I drew this character every single day in the same pose and with the "Monster" song by Skillet (truly embracing Shadow's edge...). After some days, I just got tired and said: "Okay, you know what? I'll draw something different—SOMETHING AMAZING!!" Spoiler: it was poop, lmao. However, that didn't stop me; I kept drawing regardless of how it looked until my current level. It was a very satisfactory journey, not gonna lie... still willing to learn more things about art! Sooooo yeah, we could say that... it was thanks to Mephiles that I got interested in creating art ;D

Q: Your advice for artists

// Never be afraid to fail, remember you're not failing, you're learning how to NOT draw a hand (or whatever) and over all... have fun creating! bc what is the point of creating if you're not having fun? and of course... be open to the feedback of other people!

- Deep Sea Prisoner

Well, a thing I always like to share is the creation of my comic. Everything started with 15-year-old me... with a big passion for creating stories (even fusing Club Penguin with Dragon Ball Z, but more details about that in the future (?)). I saw this game by the artist Okegom (Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea) and said, "Woah... I really want to make a story like this." Then I started with the concepts. At first, it was going to be a fanfic, something connected to this game. With time, I grew up and said, "Well, this has the potential to be its own thing." I then decided to scrap everything and start from scratch. At first, I created Clover... then some vamp dudes and Barry (formerly known as Clark (?)). The thing is... the story had everything: action, comedy, etc., but it lacked something... a beginning and better character design, lmao. Hell, I didn't even think of something logical for Clover to get involved in adventures that would put her in many dangers. The concept itself was in diapers, and for some time, I didn't even know what to do.

Then, after going through a lot of things, watching artists, learning from them, watching comics and stuff... I knew what to do. I retconned some things and designed more characters (even redesigning some of them), and welp, little by little, it took form. Now, it’s the thing you know nowadays: from Clover not having friends and living in an empty world... now we have a Clover with super good friends and a world full of life! I just love my comic; it means everything to me, and sharing it is like sharing my happiness with everyone. For now, it has 5 chapters, but they're all worth it!! Y'all should take a look ;D

Q: What have you learned from making your comic?

// Many things, I learned about paneling, scripts, and pretty much how to use fonts and learned how to speed up the pages. Still, I'm a slow fella, but I do what I can! And of course, so many things to learn about how to do a comic, but trust me, if you can do line art + coloring at the same time... it speeds up everything 1000 billion times faster. It may seem slow, but it's incredibly faster. If you're someone who makes colored comics... try it ;D

Q: What do you like about comics?

// I like how creative they can get with paneling and even with expressions. A major example is Akira Toriyama in the OG Dragon Ball; bro made characters breaking the panels and all that crazy stuff. If you read Chapter 5 of my comic, you can clearly tell how I was referencing that sjdnskjdn (still planning on doing it because it's immensely creative!!). Then we have Eiichiro Oda with so many funny faces and expressions, a major example being Luffy and Enel. If you know the Damn Daniel meme, you'll know what I mean sdnsakjdns buuut yeh, these mangakas and other sources are my big main inspirations when drawing comics.

Q: What are some other artist you watch? 

// Well, there's this artist I practically grew up with, called Okegom (also known as Deep Sea Prisoner... HA, yeah, like the name of my comic ;D). I liked her style so much and the way she uses colors in general. During my teenage years, I tried to do the same thing, imitating her style and stuff (which obviously failed miserably, lmao). There was also a time when I was obsessed with the Scott Pilgrim comic. I liked the style so much, but I was like, "Mmm, I don't want to stop doing this style..." Then I had the brilliant idea of combining both styles. At the start... it was uhhh a bit uncanny valley, but over time, it just got better progressively. Then I saw Sr. Pelo, who inspired me to explore more types of bodies, and more recently, Bacun, who inspired me to improve my coloring. But yeah, long story short, the artists I mentioned helped me a lot to develop my style.

Q: How did they learn their techniques? 

// This is a hard one to answer because I don't have any idea how they learned them sadnsjkasdn, but I can imagine that they learned by studying the basics and pretty much just trying and trying. As I said before, it's hard to answer this because I don't have a proper answer sajkdnsajdns.

Q: What would you consider bad art? 

// Hmmm well, for me it really depends on the context. There's no bad art at all. You can say: "Well, abstract art is shit because it's just a lot of random scribbles," while others might say: "Abstract art is so cool because it expresses so many things!!" Sooo at the end of the day, it's just subjective (but that doesn't mean lame things don't exist tho (?)

Q: Do you think people are too afraid of failing and not learning from it? 

// Oof, believe me, I see that every day on a certain server... like, you know, I feel them. Failing can be scary, but if you just stay doing nothing and not trying to learn anything about it... then you're just trapped in a loop of mediocrity, buuut. Trying to be perfect in everything just leads to frustration, sooo... my recommendation: stop trying to be perfect, analyze your failures, learn how not to do a certain thing, and overall... have fun with your creations!

Q: How do you determine when feedback is helpful as opposed to when it is not? What is the distinction?

// Well, feedback is useful when the person tells you where you went wrong and what you could do to improve it, even giving you advice and tips to keep in mind. However, if it's something like: "hURR dURRR yoUR aRT IS SHET" and uh... "KEI UAI ES bleeeh," then it's just throwing shit without adding anything. And not just that, but also saying: "Eh, you're not talented enough, quit art" or similar—that's not feedback, not even a constructive one. Basically, the difference is that one tells you the errors you made and how to improve, while the other doesn't add anything useful (also, you don't have to follow feedback super strictly or anything. You can add your own twist to it, and if it doesn't work for you, try something else. Never stop experimenting!).