@BroSkullEmoji - @Aalasteir (Q)

Q: how did you discover Newgrounds and why did you join?

A1: I had nowhere else to be mentally ill online

(I knew about Newgrounds ever since I was a kid cuz I used to play a ton of megaman fangames and watch a bunch of cartoons, but I re-gained interest in the site thanks to the FNF boom, which made me remember this site, want to visit it again for nostalgia, and then I noticed that I could post my art there, it's all a snowball effect from there)

Q: How do you feel creating art has influenced you? Why do you post art?

A2: My father finally came back after I became good at art.

(It started as a side-hobby when I was a tween and had a ton of free time, it was a fun activity and my friends and family always complimented and encouraged me, they did when I was starting out and they still do to this day, so I'd say I'm a happier person altogether thanks to art)

I post it because I need the instant gratification that I get whenever that bar turns yellow for a split second and I see a number next to the bell.

(Okay that one is partially not satire lol, but I guess as an artist I just developed the need and urge to showcase my work, whether I get attention or not, plus feedback is very useful)

Q: What is Analog horror and why do you like it?

A3: It's when you get scared when you look for the dictionary definition of analog like I did, I like it cuz it makes the hairs of my neck feel funny.

(It's a relatively recent internet horror subgenre which mainly uses old analog-esque aesthetics such as VHS tapes, a lo-fi approach to video and audio production and stuff like that, it's very common for a lot of analog horror series to seem harmless at first but quickly transition into a creepy video, I guess I just find it cool and edgy, plus when I was young I was birefly introduced into the whole analog technologies world thanks to my parents and my brother, so yeah, it connected with me, sorry for yapping)

Q: Why do you draw disturbing art?

A4: I want to SCARE people

(Okay I kinda do, but I mainly draw disturbing art because I find it fun, it gives a lot of room to play with and do "wrong" things with your art, plus I'm already a big horror and metal head, from where I drive a ton of inspo for my disturbing or edgy art)

Q: Do you think Newgrounds is considered a "gay" website?

A5: Remove "website" and "considered a" and replace "Newgrounds" with "Aalasteir" and my answer is yes.

(Some parts of Newgrounds are lol)

Q: How did you decide on doing your El Dorado Collab - Scene 166

A6: I broke into the collab host's home and convinced him to have me in by doing the puppy eyes.

(The collab host reached out to me after he saw my previous animations and asked me if I was interested in joining the El Dorado Re-animated collab, to which I accepted.

The collab was around midway-through in production so he gave me a few scenes to choose from, I picked my scene and finished it. Speaking of which, shoutout to Wes Makowski for organizing the collab, pretty excited to see the finished collab)

Q: Is the community on the site good?

A7: NO, they call me dumb and stupid.

(It's a good community, flawed of course, like the great majority of communities, but overall, the people are kind, helpful, and pretty funny too)

Q: How do you decide on trying out commissions?

A8: I'm fucking starving

(I thought my skill level was good enough and my art style appealing enough to start commissions, tbh I've never done commissions before so this is rather a big learning process rather than something I'm already experienced in, so I'm not complaining, also, yes, I can afford food, not by commissions but I can, thankfully lol)

Q: Your advice for artists

A9: Abandon everything and become a NFT bro, I'm already better than you.

(First of all, don't become an NFT bro lol, second, as general advice for all kind of artists, I'd say the following:

-Take your time and enjoy the process of learning and improving, art takes time and so does getting better at it, so take it easy.

-Learn to balance skill productivity and doing it for fun, depending on your goals and how seriously you want to take it, you can lean more into one side than the other, but always remember to find a balance that works for you.

-Learn and practice fundamentals, with the topic of skill productivity, this part helps a lot, whether that be shape and form, gesture, anatomy, perspective, composition, rendering, etc, these will greately speed up the skill section.

-Expand your fields, don't get stuck with just one niche, medium, or art style, unless you want to, these are just advice; try more things, backgrounds, props, scenes, comics, animation, storyboarding, stuff like that, if you don't like them, at least you tried.

-Feedback and references are underrated, and I can't stress this one enough, these are two really big sources that will help you open your eyes a lot more and pin-point areas or mistakes that you want to improve.)

Thank you again for having me.

-William (broskullemoji)