Moonsul

What’s your art background? 

Mostly for fun, mostly self taught. I learned mainly by copying characters from video game strategy guides. Zelda 64, Final Fantasy 4 - 9 and Final Fantasy Tactics were a huge inspiration. When I was really young it was Sonic/Mario/TMNT/Pokemon. I also recall reading some instructional books on how to draw Marvel Superheroes. The only art class I ever took was in middle school and I was booted out after a few days for being problematic in class haha.  I wasn’t very good with school in general.

List a few of your inspirations.

Akihiko Yoshida
Moebius

Brian Froud

90’s Nickelodeon

Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics)

Leonardo Da Vinci

Preferred software/hardware for illustrating?

Clip Studio Paint
Gouache/Acrylic

Watercolor Pencils

What are some of your strengths in illustrating and weaknesses?

I could definitely improve everything.  It’s fairly easy for me to come up with concepts and ideas, so I’d consider that a strength. I tend to start having trouble maintaining focus and enthusiasm around the 75% mark of a finished product. Tidiness has always been a big area for improvement. I do prefer handmade and whimsical over digital perfection, so it’s a tightrope that I’m always trying to improve for sure.

Favorite artworks you’ve done for Tetraverse.

Goals as an artist. Where do you want to be in your art career 5 years from now? 

This is something I’ve always been terrible at, visualizing a professional trajectory.  I’ve always liked to keep my creativity as a raw passion, and not something I completely turn into a job.  That being said, it’s always nice to have stability and a reliable income. So yeah, I guess that’s what I want - to be having fun, feeling inspired and autonomous while also feeling financially sustained at the same time. To be doing art at least a couple days a week and enjoying it!  The income can even come from elsewhere.

Advice for new or aspiring artists.

Everything you make is going to feel like crap at some points. Get used to that. There’s only one person who will ever truly have the power to believe in you and push you through to higher levels and that's you. Believe in yourself before there’s even any evidence or praise.

Don’t judge the first sketch. Don’t judge the third or the fifteenth if you’re still struggling. Come back to it in a better state if necessary.  Just keep moving forward until you find the flow. So many people get paralyzed in self criticism and self doubt before they actually get into the flow-state.  That’s where effortlessly inspired work in any creative medium comes from. Practice getting into the flow-state, it will help with everything in life.

Also, if all you can do is stick figures, then first build a style around that.  If all you can do are weird blobs, then build a style around that.  You’ll naturally want to grow as you go. But in the beginning just find your style, and don’t just force yourself to do realism or industry standard or whatever just because some teacher or artist said you should.  Of course it’s always good to improve your skills and expand in challenging directions, but more important in the beginning is to have fun, stay inspired, explore interesting ideas, and find styles that vibe with you. The rest you can learn along the way and you can return to the more academic stuff intermittently during the journey.  Learn how to feel it out.
Also, in my opinion an actual pencil and paper is always the best place to start.  Make sure it feels inspired there first before getting bogged down trying to fix everything with an expensive tablet and some richly-featured suite of software.