Original questionnaire by Stupied Blank version here.
I'm nullmi, or Naomi/Nomy if you want a real name. I like to make character art and illustrations.
For my full-time I'm an in-house graphic designer for a Japanese store chain.
I would say since I was a young kid. I got into drawing around the 4th grade when I bought a "How to draw Pokemon" book from scholastic. I got into digital art during my junior year of high school.
In terms of graphic design, I started around 2013. I tried to design a Welcome to Nightvale episode poster in Photoshop Elements.
Clip Studio indicates about 2-5 hours for my finished pieces. I might have spent longer however, since I sometimes thumbnail sketches on a paper-sized canvas, and isolate the final sketch on a different board.
I move fairly fast due to the nature of my full-time. There are times when I slow down the pace to meticulously work on something - but again, that type of care and attention is job related.
Typically, when it matches what I have planned out.
Looking for references and conceptualizing/sketching.
Social media.
I have a somewhat beefy computer that I built myself. Hand-picked the components and everything since a design workstation needs good parts, but nothing too crazy like what video editors/streamers use.
I also carry an android tablet for notes and quick composition sketches for designing.
I have my full-time, so I'm pretty satisfied with whatever income I'm making from that.
I considered selling asset packs for vector art or brushes, but with genai scraping every resource it can touch, I'm more inclined to keep it to myself.
Oh - and I take commissions. The sheets are somewhere out there.
Mastodon, bluesky and this site. There's a lot of art I share with just my siblings on group chats and no one else.
I like that my art is an amalgamation of all the art styles I loved as a child.
Some technical skills like perspective, different body types, and different faces.
Would also love to get better at doing hand-lettering. My coworkers are amazing at it.
I took art classes in middle school and high school. They were fine but never delved into in-depth techniques.
Hmm, a tough question. I appreciate people who have high mastery in art, and it's my personal goal to understand the fundamentals. I have an admiration for people who delve into experimental art though - their raw passion is fun.
I like studying older artists' methods. Modern techniques feel too stylized and niche to be actually useful.
No. My work around is that I draw on an extremely zoomed out canvas. Helps in that regard.
For digital art techniques: I practice non-destructive editing. Try to preserve original files, so revisions and changes are easier down the line.
Use vector lines or shapes, layer makes and duplicate rasterized layers before making hard changes.
My grievance with Clip Studio Paint is that the layer effects are baked-in and destructive. Gaussian blur, warps, and other effects should have a toggle off button like Affinity, Photoshop and Illustrator. As much as I love Clip Studio I feel like my deep pleading wish for a huge quality of life updates go unheard. Effect toggles will remain nothing but a distant dream...
Once in a while. If I find myself deeply unsatisfied with my art, I hit the books. I believe that learning is a constant in life, and those who do not learn - do not want to learn.
Books I refer to frequently:
Anatomy for Sculptors
Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist
Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming
Books I picked up recently:
The Design of Everyday Things
I guess a little bit? I'm more aware of the psychological / cognitive associate of certain palettes to general audiences, if that's any indication of understanding color theory.
I'm not that great at it though. My background is in advertising (spent about 3 years creating large print formats.) So, I find myself working often with limited CMYK palettes. I tend to use colors and tones that are simple and constrasting enough to be seen across roads and intersections.
For personal art, I do find myself leaning towards my occupational habits - choosing simple tones for convenience and quickness. It's been something I been wanting to fix about my own art.
Once again, I've been hitting the books for this one:
Color and Light: A Guide for the Realistic Painter
My favorite color is purple, specifically lavender. Also, mini-tangent since were on the topic of favorite colors:
I am obsessed over these color schemes from gaia. I'm a sucker for good palettes, and there's a lot of fun to be had in a dress-up game that has items in a very specific color palette.
There's a shade of green that I can't stand.
Also, since we seem to be on the topic of color palettes and color theory, a side tangent:
Making a few people aware of this but pantone's color of the year is a very hot topic amongst my designing coworkers/ associates. Generally we have a disdain for the brand; they charge a subscription service to utilize their palette guide. There is a work around, presumably by buying the actual formula guide. But let's bring out those prices, shall we?
Yikes. Nothing like a company geared towards a creative community, turning their flagship product into Software/Product as a Service. The future is terrible and I hate it. I hate that we have to subscribe to colors now.
I'm amazed by what could be categorized as a marketing campaign these days. This is purely just a tone, now turned into a product, now geared to be sold to the small but dedicated niche who cares. Have YOU heard of the pantone color of the year? Probably not, but now you have a fun tidbit to share when you want to break the ice in social settings.
Much like a television awards show, or the superlatives of a graduating class yearbook, none of these accolades truly matter, unless you really really really care for some reason.
Unfortunately, I am one of those suckers that happens to care. Because, c'mon how are these the top contenders amongst the entire spectrum of colors?!
Now For Our Next Category: Questionable Decisions Made by A Corporate Entity! I Present to you the Alleged Winners of the Color of their Respective Year
2026: THE Millennial Gray Cloud Dancer
2021: TRAFFIC PALETTE Ultimate Gray + Illuminating
Colors of all time - as one would say. I don't find Cloud Dancer particularly offensive; I kind of hate how it makes sense. My disappointment lies in the fact that in the span of just 5 years, 2 shades of gray were chosen as the year's top color.
You may be thinking, well, this won't matter anyway because this doesn't affect daily life in any way what-so-ever.
But I've had real world discussions (against my will) on these two colors that was, for some reason, occupational employment levels of critical. The length of my opinion on the traffic palette during the discussion was frankly the worst 3 minutes of my life. I tried to convey that I enjoyed the juxtaposed concept of gray and yellow on a shared canvas but in my heart and in my head I was repeating: "traffic palette, traffic palette."
Okay, well I think in retrospect my disdain for the colors of the year might be a biased opinion.
A little bit. I try to use Blender on occasion, but I'm trash at the program. For human models I use DAZ Studio since it's one of the only 3D programs I know that could make plus-size body types.
I think it's enjoyable nowadays. I didn't like doing lineart at first, but during the covid years I bought traditional ink dip fountain pens and a light box. I think once I understood the physical process, I got better at doing it digitally.
When it gets difficult, go around and check out some pen stability programs. I personally find Affinity's built-in stabilizer to be superb.
Lazy Nezumi is my go-to when I want to "lock-in."
There's quite a lot. I've been kicking around a few shorter stories that I would be able to feasibly produce.
It depends on what I'm making. I like having an art board full of reference images to guide me along when I really need help.
Sleep it off, go through art books, read, or play video games.
I do a little of both when I'm working on something casually. I like long documentary style youtube videos. For music I listen to video game OSTs or pop songs. My ultimate preference is white noise/ public background chatter. (Like the type of noise you get when at a cafe or library)
I can work as long as I'm in an air-conditioned room.
Incoherent, messy and full of bubble maps.
No.
Yeah. I like getting to know other artists.
And many of family members also make art!
I had a few of them draw something:
Youngest Sibling:
Younger Sibling:
Youngest Niece:
Didn't give anyone a prompt - simply handed them my tablet and asked them to draw something.
I like keeping personal projects to myself.
I do it all the time. It's fun.
At this point gift art is more than half of the art I post online. But, this could be because my feelings on social media are hitting an all-time low and the appeal of sharing personal works in front of the world wide web doesn't interest me as much as it used to.
Shrimp o'clock.
Hospitalized twice.
Don't do too much overtime. And visit your doctor yearly once you hit your 20s. And check your workplace offices/home work stations for mold.
Been trying to get into personal photography again.
I used to take a lot of nature photos/flower photos but my photography instructor in college was very strict, and very persnickety when it came our photography submissions. He wouldn't accept nature/plant photography since it's fairly easy to find a garden on Guam.
He also didn't allow beach photos, photos taken near the campus, photos of the campus, selfies, and photos taken on the 'Automatic' setting on DLSR cameras. Basically, he didn't make the class easy, and we had to be 'creative,' with every photo we took.
At some point, I stopped taking photos like these ones on the bottom gallery altogether. "It won't make money. It's nothing too special," is what I thought back then. But! It makes me happy, so yeah, I'll be taking these mundane photos all I like.
I also gave a shot at making music, but I think it's too ambitious for someone like me who's only played music and has never ever delved into music theory/music making. I've mostly made music using beepbox.
I gave FL Studio a shot too but it's much too complicated for someone who has just started.
For now I think I'm sticking to beepbox, since my free time is almost nonexistent with all the hobbies I'm juggling.
White Sands (Beepbox Ver):
Shaped Like A Friend (Beepbox Ver):
Grimlight (GB Studio) \
Stylized.
If I'm the one not drawing it. I'm enamored by undersea drawings. There used to be a giant painting (or maybe it was a mural?) of spinner dolphins in the dentist's office when I was a kid and I loved that painting. There's also a huge mural of a reef at the local airport that mesmerized my little child brain.
Maybe I don't really like hyper-realistic art and love sea life art instead. Hm.
Indifferent. Fine art has a completely different culture and environment than what I'm used to. Plus, the barrier to entry is that of wealth and privilege.
Yes most likely. I didn't learn any proper art skills in school.
I don't think I do.
Definitely not.
Once in a while, but I think it's only natural to feel a tad bit envious of what others have. It's what you do with your feelings that matter.
Take 1: Don't make art your full time job unless you're truly prepared for the reality of it. Sharp deadlines, harsh critiques and the horrible, horrible concept of being perceived by an audience that is indifferent at best and ballistic at worst.
Take 2: Not liking Anime/Manga/Asian inspired art is a valid take, but I ask that the people who stand on this ground take an introspective look on why they feel this. Since the days of it's debut, eastern pop art has been questioned and jeered by western art spaces and media outlets.
"Anime art is weird, manga is weird" is not a valid evaluation on an entire style that has dozens of mediums connected to it.
If you do find that you have a substantial take on anime and manga, then that's good! Stick to your tastes and conviction and let people know your criticisms. There's a lot of asepcts of anime and manga I find distasteful, like the glorification of Japanese imperialsm, the romanticisation of Euro-centric aesthetics, 1000 year old in a child's body trope, etc. There's genuine discussion to be had on these tropes and themes.
However, if you're following some sort of anti-anime bandwagon, just be very aware of the xenophobic sentiment and history of western influences and its desire to diminish the culture of marginalized people.
If I had some time, I think I'd like to make an essay about this, but I digress.
I get urked when people have multiple income streams and fully monetized content pipelines but their art is evidently produced at a novice level.
This is not a slight on beginning artists! It is in my personal regard however, that if you are going to sell your art, that you should know the proper ways to handover correctly prepped files so that your commissioner/client can fully appreciate your art.
Specifically: Incorrect resolutions or sizes for platforms (like small text on an image posted on social media), pixelated lineart from using deformation/transformation tools, effects that are baked in so there is no isolated asset of the main art, etc.
If you're planning on making commisions, just draw at a higher resolution, at least 300 dpi so that your clients can have a print ready file without needing you to redo it. Try to make your process non-destructive so that when you adjust colors or use adjustment layers, you have a means to return to your orignal version. Provide an isolated version of the key art without the background so your client can use the art in other projects (if you allow that kind of thing), if you do page character sheet commissions, isolate every drawing and send them as seperate files, ETC ETC.
Look, I don't take commissions and haven't for a really long time, but there are times when I see assets and I can tell the original artist didn't prep their work properly. I don't nitpick art styles or art design, I do nitpick the end result and the deliverables.
Maybe it's because I'm looking at things through the eyes of the person who usually finalizes/resizes designs for print/digital ad placement/etc. Ahhhh. I'm getting PSD PTSD.
Okay, so trust me when I say I don't take the word inspiration lightly. All of these artists and their have sparked something deeply in me and I have probably analyzed and adored a hundred times over. I have a lot of love in my heart and more than anything in the world I love art. Some of these span from childhood obsessions to recent admirations.
Art/Illustration
CLAMP
GGDG (Cucumber Quest/Undertale)
hirosemaryhello
Em Carroll
orbitaldropkick (Kill 6 Billion Demons)
Leslie Hung (Snot Girl)
Mine Yoshizaki (Keroro Gunso)
Nemu Youko (Mangaka)
millionfish
Xamag
Hitoshi Ariga (Pokemon Character Designer)
Takehito Harada (Disgaea Character Designer)
Saida Nica
Simone Legno, Tokidoki
Designers
I legitimately think Psycholonials is underrated. If you liked the beginning 3 acts of Homestuck and want more of Hussie's writing, Psycholonials is a must-read.
Corporate satire is my guilty pleasure. Sorry, We're Open from oates is an excellent modern RPG Maker 'horror' game. I got my version from itcho.io and sometimes they have all their games on sale as a bundle.
Very Retrouvaille is a very cute indie RPG Maker 2003 game, but the original dev hasn't made a game since. They're still active on their tumblr.
Dreaming Mary was created when RPG Maker let's plays were really popular on Youtube. I haven't seen a similar fanbase for this game as other Indie RPG Horror Adventure games.
Kill 6 Billion Demons is in its last book. The world building is truly insane, and I love every aspect of the comic. It also features a good number of LGBTQ+ characters.
Wires Crossed is an LGBTQ+ story about robots. This comic is one of my favorites on Tapas! It has good pacing and extremely well-written characters. Its story recently concluded.
My Two Cents Plus Tax is also corporate satire except it has middle aged man cartoon yaoi and is the funniest web comic I've read since Perry Bible Fellowship. Two Cents was completed a few years ago so go read it!!
NSFW: And since I mentioned it, you also should read Perry Bible Fellowship. Many of their comics have been stolen and turned into viral meme formats. So, you probably have seen their comic before anyway.
Do you remember the Lazer Collection? Do you know the meme "I'm firing my lazer?" Then you probably know who Dom Fera is. However, did you know that Dom Fera makes music now and it's extremely good? My favorite tracks are Northern Lights and Karaoke Downtown
Everyday I long for the ocean. I'm usually indoors though. The beach is more fun with family anyway.
Yes, it's my full-time job. I design all day, aaaaand then I go home and draw.
Yes. I like picking up old TV shows or video games if I don't feel like making art at home.
For work, when I want a break from looking at Illustrator, I volunteer to cut posters and print flyers. At my older job I was usually the first to volunteer doing the errand running, despite being super busy all the time.
For personal art no.
Backups in triplicate. One in a cloud, one in a stable hard drive and one on a portable external drive. There are a few rare pieces that I haven't backed up though.
Yes. It's poorly made and not well thought out.
I regularly submit flyers for feedback. I'm generally willing to hear people's thoughts and opinions out but ultimately, I'll follow my knowledge and instinct.
I think every artist who wants to truly improve needs to look at their art critically.
I've been told my art feels very clean, which I will take as positive feedback.
I want it to die. I've had people feed my draft flyers and have genai spit out a perverse ungodly replica of my own design sentiment thrown back at me.
I've also had to correct genai flyers and prep them for poster printing. It's always low res, impossible to resize and a huge pain.
Yeah its fine. It's a little uncanny at first, but anything that helps an artist cut down time in their workflows is an overall benefit.
I think I've dropped plenty throughout this questionnaire.
Original content.
Absolutely not. I've seen original work that didn't even "hit." Was not even "mid." Wasn't even lukewarm.
Nothing in the world is original. I love character tropes and clichés.
Using references.
No? Is one supposed to recall every minute detail in their own head?
No. I feel that some artists rely on a mood board too much - when a design starts to falter, you just need to start from the ground up. I do keep a reference board around, but it's flexible and not my guideline for what I'm making.
There's a story. Allegedly. Presumably.
No.
I like paper-craft art styles or any digital art style that tries to replicate traditional art. I also like thin, clean lines with bold silhouettes and a striking color palette. There's also messy, sketchy colors and textures mixed with sharp dark lines and shaply compositions.
Oh, and classic anime-looking art with cell-shaded colors are a fav too. And my guilty pleasure for design leans toward maximalist graphics that showers the entire page with everything and anything. Genai struggles to replicate truly chaotic compositions.
My World of Oanet characters.
Hm.
Indifferent.
Yes. I think I have grit.
I've been drawing more so there's been some consistency recently. It used to vary in style a while back but that was mostly because I had conflicting feelings on my anime-inspired art style. But like who gives a damn anymore, lol. I'm going to draw what I feel like.
Yeah. My 2017 art has some of my favorite pieces. I'm a little upset that I spent all of my energy on fandom OCs when I could have been making them my own characters.
Skill. My 10 year old niece has been drawing since she was 3 and all that effort wasn't purely talent.
I enjoy character art/character design.
Me, duh.
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
Take inspiration from more than one source. Once you figure out what you like, then you don't need to rely on the style of others.
No - I don't sell my work since that would mean I'd need to advertise it.
I have a dislike of large crowds, so I don't do conventions. I like watching the post event highlight reels though.
I buy indie comics when I have extra funds for shipping. My latest purchase was Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Ries. Haven't started the book yet since I'm trying to knock out a few e-books I've been keeping it in my backlog.
I suppose - but I think if you're serious about becoming a professional you need to invest in good gear.
Depends.
I clean.
No.
Personally, I feel like the entire world shouldn't conform to the standards of corporations, advertising agencies and card companies on what inappropriate art is and isn't.
Yes. I've shied away from making some of my edgier art. Or maybe I should specify that I've shied away from posting my edgier art? I still draw it on occassion.
No.
Yes. I don't draw as often as I used to.
Yeah, I've been making compromises since I started my full-time job. It's not realistic to try to draw for hours after work when I spend 8 of them at my office desk doing the same thing.
Mostly move on.
Had one at one point, but it started to feel like a work task list so I've opted out of doing them.
I enjoy books/stories/manga that have an overarching theme or plot. I love deep narratives and art that explore every nuance of the story's main themes or premise topic. So, I guess my goal is to create something provocative and introspective.
This was the first drawing I made this year in the art style I've come to love.
Yes, it's a very big OC narrative piece but I've made some realizations on how much it would take out of my to truly produce it.
Money isn't everything, but it would fix about 90% of my problems.
It helps me connect with people. I am not very good at verbally communicating / or even online communicating with others. More often than not I find myself struggling with words to say, how to say it, what's appropriate and what is rude.
Drawing had been my outlet to communicate and reach people. I used to draw for whoever asked, made friends by drawing on shared notebooks in middle school, made friends in high school by drawing for fandom online.
In the moment, yes.
Yes! The world needs more artists.
I often see those "share your art advice" social media prompts popping in here and there and they have never sat well with me.
People like to be cute online. They share common sense quips, platitudes, and niceties that don't mean anything at all. And yet, these are the same people who will sneer and tear into every single "controversy" the wider internet has to offer. In this regard, it makes me think of a statement I've recently begun to hear about the state of modern internet at a whole, "It is a symptom, not the disease."
The disease, that I think, is the need for attention, the need to desire attention, and retain it. Because, people don't like to be left out. They don't want to be lonely. They want to belong. They want to be relevant. To be relevant, is to produce. To produce is to make "content." Posts can be content, a call-out can be content, an update, a sneeze, a death, a confession. All of this can be content, why the hell not. In the chase for content and shares and likes, how can we possibly know if your advice or your disdain is authentic? Is this sincerity or a ruse, a real opinion or the one that will get you 100 likes? Why are you acting like you're a corporation? Why do you need to post at a frequency akin to an American fast food chain? Why are you running yourself ragged for a general mass that doesn't even care? Why are you trying to give advice to strangers in one post, and tearing apart other strangers in the next?
Are you enjoying yourself? Is this making you happy?
Is it fun looking to the next meme to make a parody out of? Is it fun looking for the next trend, the next hit, the next big one? Who are we praising today? Who are we throwing in the ditch tomorrow? Did a celebrity die? Did a celebrity screw up? Comment on it, it's a hot take, it's in topic, it's... the worse. ha.
You're a human, first and foremost. Not a brand. So stop acting like one. Stop making public statements, stop taking accountability for events outside your control. Have some empathy, and think of others before you press the 'number go up' button. Think of yourself before you press the 'number go up' button.
Will that really give you want you want?
August 19,2026 about 6 months after I first started this.
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