@wayyward - @Aalasteir (Q)
Q: What is art?
A banana duct taped to the wall.
Q: What are your origins of joining NG, and what was your opinion of it when you first saw it? How has your perspective changed now that you are using it?
My boyfriend sat me down one day and had me play Pico's School. It was a bit jarring, and I was deeply disturbed for several days. He also showed me a few other flash games like Alice is Dead by Hyptosis and Aggressive Alpine Skiing by Wiesi. I kept wanting to play them, and eventually he suggested I make my own Newgrounds account, so I could get the metals. After I joined I took a look around the site and saw that people could post their art here. I came in with the impression that the site would be edgy or that people would be a bit rude. But I found that people are actually really sweet even when they make edgy jokes as a way of expressing affection. I also learned that the site wasn't all just garish flash games and geysers of blood. It's only like 7.5% that. Yes, I just made up that statistic, but I'm saying the real focus is on making quality art, and Newgrounds genuinely supports art and artists.
Q: How do you decide on picking a motif to draw? You draw a lot of Pico. What do you like about drawing Pico?
Usually I'll see something out in the world and I'll get reminded of it when I sit down to draw, whether it's a place, a song, a character, or a moment in time I want to capture. I've learned that people are about 20% more likely to click on a drawing if Pico is in the thumbnail. I call this the Pico effect. Just kidding, I actually just really enjoy drawing him. Pico is probably the first Newgrounds character I latched onto, maybe because of FNF lol! I see him as kind of a blank slate character I can put into whatever I'm working on. He's sort of a personification of the site to me, and I feel like people can immediately recognize and relate to him or project onto him, especially because his design is so simple.
Q: When people say that the community is good do you feel they are exaggerating?
Yes, I hate this community, as you can tell from my other answers.
Q: Do you feel artists are bad at taking feedback?
They can be, which I think is both understandable and an obstacle to overcome. Since coming here I've been teaching myself that criticism, even if I feel it's unhelpful or not asked for or even rude, is both inevitable and a learning experience, and there is almost always something to be gained from listening to it. There have been times people have given me feedback, and I feel I was not ready to hear it and thus responded negatively. But taking it in and trying not to beat myself up helped me improve in the long run. I have to remind myself that art is a skill that requires study and hard work. It's not something we are "born with". It's okay to have a long way to go.
Q: How is the community here on NG?
You're all a bunch of assholes. Just kidding, I really love the community here, especially the fact that it's so focused on working together to make cool stuff. The collaborations have been a blast, and I've met so many people who have inspired me to improve and enjoy drawing more than ever. Sure, there's some occasional drama and a few shady people once in a while, but in general the people here are pretty chill and supportive of one another, probably more so than a lot of other sites.
Q: How did your interest in Neocities start?
I used to make webpages on Neopets (Why is it always "Neo-" everything?) and learned HTML and CSS from that. Back in like 2021 I think(?) I found a website called Cinni's Dream Home that was on Neocities and I thought it was the coolest thing I'd seen in a while. From there I found other people's Neocities sites. It reminded me of things people on Neopets sometimes made. Neocities sites are literally whatever you want to put on them and often say a lot about the artists' personality. So I thought it would be fun to make my own. It's freeing to have a little homepage that I can just vomit all these gifs and colors onto or just make whatever I feel like. I think it's more fun than having a twitter. >;D
Q: Your experience with writing
I've always really enjoyed writing (Maybe that's why these responses are so long). There are usually larger stories behind the characters I draw, but I haven't gotten to writing them down yet because I like to procrastinate xD. Jamriot's recent Writer's Jams on Newgrounds have helped me sit down and get stories out into the world, especially because of time and word count limits! I know this isn't Tom Fulp's top priority right now because he has other things to focus on, but ahhh I'll be so happy if the day comes that we get a literature portal here!!
Q: From your perspective is the Internet worse now than it was previously?
Honestly, not really... Maybe? Yes and no. It's gotten more commercialized as it's become more widely used. I think the fact that it's gotten bigger as made the bad parts louder. The AI art stuff is a bit intimidating, and the fact that it's easier than ever to stumble upon misinformation. At the same time though, I think a lot of people view the "old web" with nostalgia and rose colored glasses and tend to ignore the bad things that were going on online back in whatever ambiguous time period they're thinking of. I said I take a lot of inspiration from internet nostalgia, but I think the internet, like society as a whole, will always be good and bad.
Q: What advice for Internet users
Sometimes I think everyone should shut up and listen to each other. If you're gonna sit down at your keyboard say something is 100% bad or 100% good and amazing, then you are 100% wrong and bad and I hate you, and maybe I should take my own advice