FAQ

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First of all, please forgive me occasional sarcasm or any answer that might sound rude, it's not my intention to offend anyone. Sometimes it's really, really hard to resist and write perfectly polite reply.


1. What's the meaning of your username "Diamond4girl"?
There's absolutely no meaning. It's the random combination of words and numbers that came to my mind after I ran out of all the cool usernames I wanted to have when joining dA. I thought I was just in passing, I didn't know anything about this site, except that it was full of pretty pictures, so the username, no matter how idiotic it was, didn't matter. Boy, I was wrong.  I never thought I'd stay and especially post any art here! And now I'm stuck with a username that gives various possible wrong impressions of me. Oh, well.  -.-


2. How long have you been drawing?
I could go for the old cliché and say I been drawing since I could hold a pencil, but practically anyone could say that since we all drew as kids, even if that were only some unrecognizable doodles on the paper, so I'll say I've been drawing seriously for about 6 years now. When I just started I was drawing like crazy, sometimes finishing up 3 drawings a day. Now I don't finish up 3 drawings a month. Miss the good ol' days!


3. Where did you learn to draw?
In my room, sitting on my not-so-comfy old office chair at my desk that looks like it's 100 years old. For hours. Countless hours.

Drawing is not  learning to ride a bike, drawing is something you never stop learning.


4. Have you ever attended any art school or taken art classes?
No, I'm entirely self-taught in all types of art I do.  (of course I had the common art classes in elementary school like every other kid)


5. Can you teach me to draw?
Hi, random stranger on the web, what did you have in mind exactly?

Would you like to move in with me for a few months until I l teach you everything I know? Or maybe you want me to make hours and hours of special videos for you?  Or maybe give you textual instructions? Something else? You probably want it for free too?

I know, I know, people usually say this is as some sort of a compliment because they're amazed with ones work, but sometimes they are serious and when they are I can only wonder how can random people even ask something like that over the Internet. What do they expect I'm gonna answer?

I'm flattered you want to learn from me, but, seriously people, if you really wanted to learn to draw, you'd be working your ass off, practicing, experimenting, trying out different techniques, methods, tools, watching and reading zillion great drawing tutorials and what not. You can always ask me precise questions about anything (techniques, tools, how I do this and that) and I'll be happy to answer.


6. Do you sell originals?
Some of my originals are available for sale in my Etsy shop and on eBay myworld.ebay.com/wickedillusio… from time to time. Some of my traditional art prints are available  in my dA Shop and various other print shops (check Journal section, there's a custom box with the links).


7. Can I post your art to ___? Can I use your art for ___?
Since so many people are just taking my art, using it and posting it anywhere they think of with no credits, no asking permission, no links, anything, the following usage is the only one I allow:

Re-posting my art as is somewhere else on the web is allowed only in case when it's some kind of feature/art showcase on your personal website/blog and the image itself is a direct link to my original deviation, OR there's a clear credit and link back to my original deviation, or Profile, or both under the image or somewhere near it. I also must be notified about that and given a link to the site where you posted my art.

If you're on tumblr, you're free to re-blog my art from my tumblr account wickedillusion.tumblr.com/ of course, but case you want re-post something from my dA, than the image itself should be a link directly to my original submission on dA and it would be nice if you put my tumblr address somewhere too.

Any other use of my art is strictly forbidden without my written permission! If I see any of my drawings used for anything I'll consider it a copyright violation/art theft, whether there's a credit or not. If you didn't ask and I didn't give you my permission, you can't use it. As simple as that.


8. Did you really draw this?
Aww, one of my favorites.  No, it was insert a super sarcastic reply here. The deviation is in drawings category, my gallery is full of drawings, my usually too long description makes it quite obvious it's a drawing and look, there's even a list of the tools I used! And yet you ask. -.-

I know there's a lot of fake art on the web and sometimes that's the thing people spit out when they're amazed by something, but still.

When someone in real life asks me was it really me who drew that something, after I said it was my drawing, it practically comes as an insult. What? I'm not good enough to be the person who drew it, or what?


9. Do you have any tips for me?
For this one, I'd like to quote Crimefish because it sums what I think too: "For fuck's sake, be more specific. Either there's a certain area you feel you need to improve on, or you prefer to keep the question vague because what you really want is a magic trick to make drawing quick and easy. I don't have any tricks. None of us does. We use good old-fashioned hard work. Care to join us?"

As said earlier, you call always ask me all kinds of questions about anything, but be specific and I'll be happy to answer them.


10. How do you get your proportions right?
I use the grid method. Hate it, it's boring, time consuming, but efficient. I don't want to risk with this crucially important step- your whole drawing outcome depends on it, sorta. I use it   in two different ways.  First is drawing my original outlines on cheap printer paper with printed grid underneath. This way I can scribble, press as hard, go over same areas and erase as many times I need until I'm satisfied, without worrying about totally destroying the drawing paper texture and non erasable lines before even starting the real job. Than I transfer my outlines  in a very light, clean version onto my drawing paper and then the real job can begin! The second way is the good ol' drawing grid on the paper and erasing it/covering it as I progress with the drawing. I use the second one for sketch cards/ A3 drawings, while the first one for A4/9 x 12" drawings.

You're not done with the proportions after you drew your partial or complete outlines/sketch. That's something you have to pay attention to all the time as you go, especially when trying to catch the likeness of a person. For example, if I didn't manage catch the likeness the way I wanted, the drawing would end up in trash, but you don't have to go that far.


11. What kind of pencils do you use?
Until recently, only graphite pencils, but now I'm working more and more on incorporating some color into my pieces with colored pencils. If you wanted to know about brands, I use cheap 0.5 mechanical pencils with HB and 2B lead and 0.3 with HB lead, KOOH-I-NOOR HARDMOUGH 1500 pencils (I'm slowly replacing them with other brands because they're no that good compared to some other brands in my opinion),  Conte A PARIS graphite pencils which are bought individually. I also have a 6 pack of Mars Lumograph pencils which I haven't really tried yet, but I love their mat blacks - darkest grades look like black pencil and not dark shiny gray as other brands!

From colored pencils I have a 12 pack of Polycromos from Faber Castell and pack of Prismacolors.


12. What technique do you use?
Uhm, technique?  None in particular. I guess mine is a mix of various techniques and it depends on what I'm working on.


13. How do you draw like that?
Like what? How should I even answer a question like that?


14. How do you render your drawings to look so realistic?
How do you render your drawings to look so anime?


15. How do you draw the human skin to make it look so realistic?
Now, that's better.  I always take the full advantage of my fine grain paper +  no blending to achieve the textures I want. I don't do anything special and don't have a magic trick for you that will instantly make you draw skin or anything else realistically. It's all about knowing which pencils to use and in which order and what technique to use to get the look you want and that is something you have to learn for by yourself, from experience and practice. With time you know exactly what to do to get what you want. Different artists who create great textures, each one of them does them differently. The differences may be small, but they show their unique style. There are lots of great tutorials on dA that show you how to create different textures, check out Svera's and :pbird12:'s for example.


16. You don't blend?!
Don't know why people make such big deal out of it. Generally, no. Just don't feel the need, hate it for various reasons plus it's part of my style and I try to avoid it whenever I can. It doesn't mean I never ever blend, but when I do, that is usually just some gray background, or some tiny part, or a bit of women's skin - when it's needed to create a certain effect, although I often try to avoid it even then. You can always see my "tools used" list in the descriptions of my drawings to see if I blended or not. Also, you can always ask me.  

I read somewhere a comment saying the blending tools are often abused nowadays and used out of laziness and something about them being a a crutch for many artists who are too impatient to learn to render using the correct pencil grade. There's truth in it, but it doesn't apply to every person who blends. People blend for various reasons. Everybody has the right to use what ever tool they feel they need and like, especially when trying to achieve a certain effect, look, style.


17. Do you have a website?


18. Do you take commissions?
Generally no, but now when I finally have Paypal I may accept max. 2-3 commissions a year, only if I really need some extra cash.

If you're  lucky and ask me just in the right time, I might accept it, but don't hope too much. That's why I won't submit any commission info, it would feel like teasing you.


19. Do you take requests?
No.  Free time is very precious to me and I constantly need to fight with the lack of time to do art I want and like and it takes a very long time to finish just one piece, sometimes more than a month of on and off work. Doing the same thing, but drawing something I didn't pick by myself/don't like/ don't feel like drawing and all for some stranger like I don't have anything better and more important to do... no, thank you.


20. What's a _____?
Google is your friend.


21. What materials do you use for your drawings?

You can pretty much everything I use here diamond4girl.deviantart.com/ar….


This FAQ will be updated regularly.

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