Lusid-Dreamer

1. At what point did you figure out what type of art suited your characters? For example, I dabbled with surreal work until I decided upon a more traditional style.
Oh god, I think I'm still figuring it out! But I suppose for a long time I was intent on rejecting manga/anime style from my repertoire at all, since that was what inspired me to start drawing seriously in the first place but it seemed that it was getting taken less seriously. Then it was only in the last year or so that I let its influence creep back in when I was trying to work on Az's looks, and it turned out to be the right step.... I still find that I don't quite draw bodies to anime standards of PERFECT but for faces, hair, eyes, a beautiful manga style works really well to give my demons such otherworldly beauty - and undefinable gender.

2. Favorite OC and why? When did you come up with them (Technically 2 questions, but... I'm bad.) ?
It's got to be Az. I created him almost 2 and a half years ago now, on a seriously hot day in May (I think). I was still doing my degree then and I had a whole project on character design/concept art to do, and I was like 'fuck it, I want to make something that might be a bit less trendy in the world of character design but that I find beautiful'. So I made a demon, and I decided he had to have a red,gold and black colour palette, and that he had to be regal. I was using a generator for demon features that suggested skin colour, hair etc and it suggested milky white skin and long hair so I just rolled with that. And thus, Az was born. This deviation is actually the first piece of concept art featuring Az in different stages of his life which I submitted for one of my final projects, and to this day it's one of my favourite pieces because my painting was like... more on point than it's ever been:



Anyway, he's my favourite because... aesthetically he's kinda what I want to be. I love his colours and I love how his character has grown in my mind and only become stronger and more 3 dimensional. I really think I could make some good stories with him and he's inspired me to add more characters into his life. He's just been incredibly good for me creatively, and I'd probably still be stuck in a fanart-scribbling funk without him.

3. What characters or pictures do you find inspiring from other artists? 
Anything demonic. I just love seeing how people interpret demons, how they interact with humans and other creatures, their world lore and classifications, the designs. Demons who don't even fit into the Judeo-Christian sort of lore and are from space and things like that. Just, give me ALL of the demon OCs.

4. Any habits when you draw or paint? I get so close to my desk that my nose touched my paper :]
I make the expression I'm trying to draw. I also sit incredibly hunched, which is really bad for me. I tend to forget to blink... and I usually work better with a huge cup of tea at hand!

5. What type of art do you find yourself interested by? Like, surreal, gore, fantasy, etc? 
I suppose anything dark and macabre, I do really like gore and if it's in a fantasy setting - even better. Though I also do love very detailed high fantasy artworks that show extensive worldbuilding and stuff like that.

6. About how long does a picture take for you to do? 
It all depends on how absorbed I get. A sketch with basic colours and neat-ish lines can take me about half an hour, sometimes less, but if I go in and really start working at the lines on a drawing it's pretty much a rabbit-hole and I don't stop for hours on end until it's as perfect and polished as I can get it. This is certainly more of a danger with digital art since you can just keep adding and adding - traditional art, I can be much faster but right now I don't actually have the space at hand to do any real painting like I used to.

7.  Do you prefer fanart or characters and own stories? 
I'm a real sucker for the fandoms I do like, and to be honest even fanart of a character can show a lot of creativity and personal headcanons which I find really interesting, such as what a character wears on a lazy day and the like. I'd say I enjoy it about equally to OCs, really. Especially if it's one of my main fandoms My enjoyment really comes from how much creativity and care has gone into a piece.

8. Tell me a unique feature/trait of one of your original characters. (i.e. an interesting physical feature, an abnormal quirk/habit, etc.)
I think for Az, the fact he has four arms. He just hides the second pair day-to-day, but sometimes they come in.... handy.
AHAHAHAHAHA.
Also he rarely blinks even though his eyes are always heavily lidded and sleepy looking.

9. Have you found anyone who looks strangely similar to one of your OC's? If so, who? 
I've seen OCs that look a little like mine, if that's what you mean. I guess the colour palette isn't that unique, but I think his design is.
Having said that there's a guy on tumblr with pale skin, red hair (though it's short) and they have lots of thick black stripe tattoos on their hands/wrists which reminds me a lot of the markings Az has on his arms and legs. And they wear black piercings. Basically they have Az's colour palette and are very beautiful ;o; I'm jealous.

10. The person who tagged you has also done this questionnaire (maybe with the questions you provided),

what about this person have you learned that you may not have known before, or, alternatively, what did you think struck you as interesting in their responses?
I already kinda knew this, but I think it's great that Adam wants to turn around gender stereotypes towards men. It's really not done enough and is frequently ignored even though men are seriously damaged by such stereotypes, and I resonate with it a lot. I hope I kinda do the same with my art too

I tag CianRhapsody, OccultOpossum, badbatter666 and Gay-Mage-Of-Space aaaand of course, comeincold (if they want to)
I'm breaking the rules but if you want to do these questions but aren't tagged, feel free to do so and I'd certainly read it if you mention me in the post.



And here are my questions (will also probably steal some from various other peoples' posts hehe):


1: Do you like to carry around your sketchbook? Like, you always have some paper and pencil with you?
2: Describe the aesthetics of your work. Basically, give me an artist statement summarizing your work or the goals you wish to aspire to in your work.
3: Are there any artists from history that you find particularly inspiring?
4: Can you tell me about an idea you have that you haven't got around to drawing yet?
5: Which is the best piece of work you've ever done? What were the circumstances?
6: Do you tend to draw very spontaneously, or do you spend a lot of time planning (like mapping out the pose, light source, perspective lines etc.)?
7: Do you post your art elsewhere, or only on deviantArt?
8: What inspired you to start drawing?
9: Do you prefer fan art or original characters and own stories?
10: The person who tagged you has also done this questionnaire (maybe with the questions you provided),