Artist survey

I just did this for the hell of it, nothing more.



100 Questions for an Artist

01. What is your pen name?
Just Niko. I'm not creative enough for a good pen name.

02. What made you choose this name?
Uh...my parents? They gave it to me.

03. Do you use PC or Mac?
PC. I don't have any qualms with either, but I think if I got a Mac it'd be a lot

easier for distributing my animation in different formats

04. What programs do you use most often?
Flash

05. Do you use mouse, or tablet?
Tablet. It's a small Wacom (I don't know the exact size) but I've gotten used to it,

so it gets the job done.

06. What color or color combinations do you find yourself using most often?
A lot of blues, it seems like. Not constantly, but cool colors are more pleasing to me

most of the time

07. What part of a picture do you put most effort into?
Depends on what it's a picture of. Most of the time I'd say the character(s).

08. How long does it take you do draw a picture?
Again it kind of depends, but generally a couple hours

09. Do you keep your rough drafts?
All over my floor, haha

10. What font do you use most often?
I'd say Comic Book, Arial Black or Coolvetica, but I really like old computer/video

game fonts like Emulator or Commadore 64

11. When you scan your image, what DPI do you use?
My scanner is terrible, so...whatever it decides to do, and I fix it myself in

Photoshop

12. Do you do anything else when you're drawing?
I used to always have the TV on when I drew, but not so much anymore. I usually have

music on though.

13. Approximately how many pictures do you draw in a month?
Polished pictures, it varies. If you want to count sketches and other drawings,

hundreds

14. What kind of paper do you draw your pictures on?
To be honest, I have no idea what the actual kind of paper in my sketchbooks is

15. What kind of paper do you use for rough sketches and drafts?
Same as above

16. How long does it take you to ink something?
Not too long. Sometimes I go straight to inking even.

17. Do you do comics, or fan comics?
I do fan stuff occasionally, but most of the time I find myself drawing original

characters

18. Do you like comics? Are they fun to make?
Yes, but I haven't made a solid, complete comic in a very long time

19. Have you ever submitted anything to a magazine?
No. Never had anything I thought was good enough..

21. Who are your favorite artists?
Oh man...Charles Schulz, Shigeru Miyamoto, Joe Murray, Genndy Tartakovsky, Keiji

Inafune, Rob Renzetti, Craig McCracken, C.H. Greenblatt, Maxwell Atoms, Dan Meth,

Jeaux Janovsky, John K., Andrew Kauervane, Tara Billinger, Gabe Swarr...there are just

too many distinct styles out there that I love and have influenced me over the years

22. Do you like anime/manga? If so, what are your favorite series?
I'm not a big fan of it, but I do like a couple series like FLCL and Shin Chan, mainly

because of how different they are from what I see everywhere day after day after

day...

23. Do you like cartoons/comics? If so, what are your favorite series?
I love cartoons and like my favorite artists, I have a lot of favorites: Rocko's

Modern Life, Angry Beavers, Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Chowder, Flapjack, Teenage

Robot, Homestar Runner, FLCL, Harvey Birdman, Billy & Mandy, Spongebob, Aqua Teen

Hunger Force, Superjail, South Park, Shin Chan, Meth Minute, Nite Fite, El Tigre,

Johnny Bravo, Faily Oddparents...holy crap, the list just goes on and on

24. Any artists that you wish you could draw like?
I'm always looking at other people's work and saying "Man, I wish I could draw like

that." It happens all the time heh

25. Do you read a lot of books?
Comics, yeah

26. Did you ever buy a book to inspire or teach you to draw?
Uh...I know I had a couple as a kid, but they were all terrible. I never learned a

thing from how to draw books, and I don't think anyone ever does. I learned just by

observing other comics and cartoons and constant practice. That's still what I do

today.

27. Any video games you enjoy?
I love Mario games, the classic Mega Man series, Kirby, Pac-Man, Zelda, and lots of

arcade games

28. Any favorite characters from video games?
Mario and Mega Man

29. Do you have a favorite writer?
Not really

30. Any books you really enjoy?
Catcher In The Rye, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...uh..those are really the only

non-comics I like, heh

31. Do you draw fanart?
Sometimes, yeah

32. Do you listen to music while you draw?
Sometimes

33. Any recommended songs?
Not any in particular. I would just say listen to Ska, heh

34. Any art websites that you really enjoy?
Channel Frederator and CF Raw, Deviantart (sometimes), and just blogs of other

cartoonists

35. Are there any websites that you go to everyday?
Tumblr, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Deviantart, etc. All those community sites

really.

36. What is your dream website like?
I don't really have a...dream website

37. Do you like your own art?
Sometimes. As time goes by, looking at my stuff tends to make me sick

38. What do you enjoy watching on television?
Cartoons and news. Go figure

39. Favorite celebrity?
None. I don't really pay attnetion to that stuff

40. Favorite color?
Red

41. Favorite food?
I like pretzels

42. Favorite drink?
Iced tea or Dr. Pepper

43. Do you like to go shopping? If yes, where? And for what?
I don't really "shop." If I go somewhere, I know exactly what I need and where it

would be. I don't waste time looking around and buying all this crap I don't need.

44. Can you cook?
Some things, yeah. Nothing incredibly complicated though

45. Any devices you use often for email? Any electronic pets?
No

46. Are you tech-savvy?
Not as much as people seem to think

47. Do you want to become a professional artist?
Yes please

48. Are there any other jobs you're interested in?
Cartoonist/animator. I would love to work for Frederator at Next New Networks up in

New York. I see a lot of stuff from people there through Tumblr and whatnot, and it

just amazes me.

49. Any other hobbies or skills besides drawing?
I write and play music. I used to play trumpet, but no so much anymore. I've been

playing piano and other key instruments for a long time though.

50. Do you like to watch movies?
Eh, not very often. I dunno why, I just don't

51. What's your favorite movie?
FLCL

52. Have you ever entered an art contest?
I've entered a couple over time

53. When did you start drawing seriously?
Hmm. Well, I knew by around 8 years old I wanted to be a cartoonist, but I don't think

you can consider anything from that time as serious. I'd lean more towards the end of

middle school/beginning of high school when I started doing comics and cartoons on the

web

54. Do you use references? If so, for what?
If I'm doing a serious piece (not just doodling) of characters that aren't mine, then

yes

56. Do you have a lot of net friends?
Yes

57. Do you have a lot of friends that also draw?
Net friends, yes. Around here though, no one's really into the same stuff that I am

58. What time of the day do you usually go online?
Whenever

59. Do you like to go to chat rooms?
No

60. Do you have your own computer?
Yes

61. What would you say to the person that you admire?
Uh...I dunno, heh. I admire a lot of people.

62. Does your mind wander when you draw?
Yes, definitely

63. Have you drawn poorly because you think too much?
Hah yes

64. Do you have any friends who are professional artists?
Yes

65. Where do you often hang out?
Well, most of my friends have scattered all over the country now, so I don't really

hang out

66. Are there any popular artists that you don't like much? (no need to name names if

you don't want to)
In a way, yeah

67. Are there any situations in which you really don't like being an Artist?
Nope

68. How about situations that make you love it?
Uh...all the time?

69. What's the one thing that makes you grateful that the internet exists?
The ability to show my work to the world and not just my friends, and the ability to

talk to and work with other cartoonists from all over

70. Is there anything out there that makes you wish the internet didn't exist?
Fan fiction.

71. What's your first drawing?
A little something I like to call Crayon on Old Computer Paper

72. Any art you did prior to that?
Uh...no?

73. Has your style changed a lot since then?
Since I was a baby? Yeah, I would say so.

75. Have you experienced artist's block before?
Many times, yeah

76. If so, how do you usually get out of it?
I dunno, it just kind of works itself out I guess

77. What do you do when you can't get out of it?
It always ends eventually.

78. Any people that have influenced you a lot?
Charles Schulz and Shigeru Miyamoto were my first and probably biggest influences

79. What made you want to start drawing?
I just love cartoons

81. Has anything ever made you want to quit art all together?
I have wanted to quit sometimes but I could never do that

82. What do you think about netiquette?
The way I am online is just how I act in "real life."

83. Have you ever been spammed or trolled?
Several times, yeah.

86. Do you upload high quality versions of your art submissions, or do you prefer to

upload a lower quality?
Usually high quality, unless it's too big to fit on the screen easily; then I upload

it at a smaller resolution


88. Do you have good vision?
I can't see worth crap!

89. If you can get anyone's autograph, whose would you get?
Too hard to say, there's just too many people

91. Do you like to draw on Oekaki BBS?
Nah

92. Do you have a job?
Just some hired help here and there. I would say animation, but it's not really a

job..

93. Did you take art in school? If so, did you do well? Are you still taking it?
To my surprise, my high school offered Animation I and II courses which I took in my

sophomore year. Much to my disappointment, it was really just odd projects that

involved drawing cartoon characters. No actual animation. I didn't learn a thing from

it, either; I knew more than the teacher.

94. Have you taken art lessons outside of a school setting?
No

95. Have you ever drawn something just because it was the cool thing to do -- the hip

new fad?
No

96. What's your favorite phrase/quote?
"A cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing every day without repeating

himself."
--Charles Schulz

97. Do you present yourself differently online than you do in your real life?
No.

98. What's your goal now?
To make a cartoon that people enjoy

99. What do you have to say to yourself?
Uh...nothing?

100. Lastly, what do you have to say to everyone who read this?
You must've been really bored!