How Do You Do It?
It's tedious, and, I think, has already resulted in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (my wrists are hurting as we speak. Er, type) and horridly pathetic vision from staring at a computer screen for at least 15 hours a week, but hey, I do it for you people. And because I have nothing better to do with my life as of right now.
What Do You Use To Make The Site?
Which? The art, layouts, or the coding?
Ooh! The purty layouts!! ^^
Well, most of the layouts were either given to me or downloaded from DDG. The 2 different layouts here: Mako Fanlisting & YGO cels (same layout for the two) and the Hentai Fanart Fanlisting, though, were made by my wonderous fanarty abilities and Photoshop skills.... along with HTML that I altered from coding that was with a couple of my DDG-obtained layouts... 0.o;;
Coding.
I use Angelfire. Feh. (Heh, my InuYasha impression... :P) Of course, you wouldn't have asked if you were observant enough to notice my URL... *sorry, mood swing.....* Also, I get occasional coding tips from sites like HTMLGoodies.com.
Art?
Most all of the hand drawn art (exception- most of my manga pics at Sailor Moose's and my YuGiOh portraits) is drawn with a mechanical pencil (Pentel Techniclick, 0.5mm lead), outlined with black gel pens (usually Hybrid Gel Rollers or whatever I can find for cheap at the moment), and colored with gel pens (pastel and metallic), and colored pencils (I used to use Crayola, now Prismacolor) and the occasional Prismacolor marker. I luv Prismacolor too. ^_^ I've got the mad-love for Photoshop 7.0 too, which I'm hooked on using like a cat on crack... ^^;; I used to use fancy-schmancy art markers that cost about $2.69...each (Tombo ABT and Marvy LePlume II), but I got started with Prismacolors & CGs. What I do first is draw the picture in a cheap-o school-type spiral-bound notebook, then trace it on to printer paper in black gel pen, and color. With the Manga pics, I usually draw lightly in pencil either in my notebook or directly on the printer paper, then color with colored pencils and accent certain parts with metallic gel pens (such as eyes and any jewelry or whatever). With fancels, I just put a piece of clear acetate over the colored drawing, trace it with a black fine-point Sharpie, and paint it with acrylic craft paints. I do the backgrounds using a "secret technique" taught to me by a great former art teacher, Mr. Black (all I'll say is that it usually involves a bunch of spray paint, several small round objects, and a paint scraper).
How about your link banners?
All the fancy text images on my link banners were done because I'm addicted to downloading fonts. I had over 350 on my computer before it messed up and I lost all my files when I had to delete and reinstall Windows... *WAAAAH!!!* I'm back up to about 500 now, though.... :3
How do you find time to do this stuff? Don't you have a boyfriend or something?
Again, I have no life. I am 20 and have been on 2 dates my entire life. And one of them was a blind date. *gags* And don't even get me started on my Proms... ACK!! A lot of guys find me as a good friend, but I think I intimidate them a little, because I'm...not...very...feminine (I hate dresses, I used to be a snake-handler, I love wild adventures, I'm very mysterious, and I can beat up my step-dad.). Therefore, I have very little of a social life outside of college, so I have plenty of time to doodle! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not...you know...ehhh...I like guys, not girls, kay? Actually, I'm not real fond of either gender right now (hey, if you had to put up with some of the morons I have to deal with, you wouldn't like them either) Waitaminute, why am I telling you about my love life??? (...Or the lack thereof...)
Oh, c'mon. I mean, don't you have anything BETTER to do with your time?
No. The only other thing I do is go to college. I used to work in a frame shop. I hate frames now. I could make up to 13 in 5 hours. One day, I hacked up both of my hands when I was cleaning a piece of glass, and I got several metal shards (shards, shrapnel, whatever...) in my fingertip from a stripped screw. I hate frames. I mean, I reeeeeeally hate frames... Then I worked at my dad's insurance agency, where I got to deal with the scum of western society for 5-8 hours a day... yay.
How long have you been doing this?
Once again, art or websites?
Art.
All my life, actually. But I really got serious about it (*GASP!!* I actually got serious about something!!! Gaze in breathless wonder, won't you.) when I was 7. Yes, I was 7. I was in 4th grade and started my own pathetic little comic book series (let's all laugh at my first attempts at cartooning). Only one person has seen them in the past 10 years, and I WILL SHOW THEM TO NO ONE ELSE!!! They're an embarassment compared to my work today... (of course, look at your art from when you were 7 and see if you don't think it's an embarassment...) After that set, I created Terri Moore (the skinny chick with the insanely long hair here) around 7th grade and have kept her ever since. She, unlike my comic-drawing skills, hasn't changed a whole lot. Mom still says I based her on myself (I based her personality on myself, not so much her looks. I do have brown hair, green eyes, and always wear western clothes, though... Actually, my body does look like her's, just not my face or hair. Okay, so she is mostly based on me...). Actually, my newest creations are my "Invader Zim"-based fancharacters Invader Moose and Irken Technician Linake (pronounced "Lee-Nah-Kay"). Linake is my name in Hawaiian, and she's basically just a sci-fi-cartoon, Irken version of me... ah, well...
Sites.
Since mid-February, 2001. Not long, huh? ;P And I didn't start out with that easy-peasy Geocities drag-n-drop slacker page stuff either. I learned head-on HTML coding right from the start (thanks Charles!).
What kinds of formal art classes have you had?
Aside from the bits and pieces of stuff that I learned from my 2 art classes in high school, I'm almost entirely self-taught! I've also learned a good bit from just watching and studying cartoons (Who says cartoons aren't educational??)! I'm also currently taking some art classes at college, but they don't have much of anything to do with cartooning. Of course, Computer Art I & II helped out BIG TIME with my CG-ing skills!! :3
Will You Marry Me?
No.
How 'bout a date?
I know I'm irrisistably adorable (HA!), but sorry, I enjoy being single. ^_~ Like I said earlier, I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to just hate the human race as a whole (not individual people, just people overall)
