Frequently Asked Questions

So I finally decided to edit one of my really old journal entries into an FAQ, considering I get a lot of questions now. So hopefully this will answer yours.

Q: Is Hawkeye your real name?
A: That would be really cool! But it's not. It's my most popular nickname, followed by Maverick.

Q: What's your real name?
A: Well it's-*screeching tires, honking horns, CRASH! Car alarm sounds* Pretty easy to remember But you can just call me Hawkeye.

Q: How old are you?
A: College age XD

Q: Where do you live?
A: My imagination And an apartment.

Q: What are you like?
A: Hehe, it's hard to describe myself... I guess, very tomboyish, relies on God' grace a lot, hates romance, loves cartoons, misses the 90s, loves animals, likes outdoor stuff, wishes college was a lot easier, paranoid, spends more time drawing and playing online than doing homework, reclusive, private, lurks a ton of galleries, you get the idea. XD

Q: What are your interests?
A: Art of course. Then a variety of things. God, mountain biking, alpine skiing, kung fu, hiking, nerf guns, Sonic the Hedgehog, dragons, writing, biology, Legend of Zelda, snow, hunting kirbians/milestones in pageviews for no reason, Neopets, Leverage, lurking galleries, drinking tea, hanging out at the bookstore, Lie to Me, reading, pillow fights, watching cartoons, House...I think you get the idea XD

Q: Are you an art major?
A: Shockingly, no. I'm studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Biological/Veterinary Sciences. Art is just for fun Although as of 2011, I am now working for a minor in Art (because apparently I need a minor in order to graduate O_o).

Q: What's your major?
A: *points up to previous answer*

Q: How long have you been drawing?
A: Actively? Ever since I joined deviantART. But I've been doodling since I could pick up a pencil.

Q: What's your art experience?
A: I took a painting class when I was about 7 for a couple months. I also took a general class in high school. But other than that...I've taught myself through trial and error. My awesome college friend has also helped me grow in my art. But I have started taking art classes in college so I can work on my perspective and anatomy (and now because I need them XD).

Q: How often do you practice art?
A: Everyday ^^ No seriously, I carry a little black sketchbook with me everywhere. I'll spend a lot of time sketching in classes where the lecture isn't as important. I draw everything from basic shapes to my classmates.

Q: Why only traditional?
A: Because I don't have any sort of graphic editing program on my Mac. Okay well I have GIMP but I've never had a lot of luck with it. The best I can do is make layouts for reference guides.

Q: Then why not just get a tablet??
A: Tablets cost money, something that's a little short when you're a college student.

Q: What mediums do you use?
A: Prismacolor and Copic double-ended markers mostly. But I also use pastel chalk, oil pastel, acrylic and watercolor paints, charcoal (black, white, and colored), graphite, ink, gel pen, and colored pencils.

Q: What kind of paper do you use?
A: Hehe, you all are going to laugh.
Standard college grade copy paper. GP 88 brightness, 20 weight. To prevent bleeding, I color my pics with a piece of smooth cardboard underneath them. ^^

Q: How do you come up with your backgrounds??
A: I usually draw inspiration from some source. Such as the background in "Bitter Revenge" was inspired from a warehouse I was in and the background in "Catch Me If You Can" came from the freeways when I was on vacation in Cali. But there are a couple that I made up off the top of my head.

Q: How do you get your lineart so clean/smooth?!
A: I honestly have no idea. (I don't even think my linearts are really that clean) It just takes a lot of practice, just like everything in life.

Q: When I've tried Prismacolors/Copics, the ink smears!! How do you keep it from smearing?
A: Here's a cool trick I learned. Do your lineart (ink it and everything) but then make a copy of it on a copy machine. And color the copy. Not only will it not smear, but the copier won't pick up all the old erase marks from the original and you have a new clean piece of paper to work with. Then just go over the copied lines with a Staedtler black pen, dip pen/india ink, or whatever you use.
That's how I do it

Q: Why mostly Sonic fanart?
A: Because I like it??

Q: You draw a lot of pictures with your characters...why?
A: I think that'd be a pretty obvious answer XD My characters are basically a piece of me and they've changed a lot overtime, for the better overall. But that came from practice. I spend a lot of time drawing them because I like playing around with them and plus I need the practice because of my comic.

Q: I've seen you do other stuff beside Sonic art. Why don't you do it more often?!
A: It's more of a personal choice. I like what I do here and I've just never really wanted to pursue full contemporary work. I can do it, I just don't want to.

Q: Where do you get ideas for your 3 Hedgies comics?!
A: Surprisingly a lot of it is from personal experiences XD Or just crazy ideas I've talked about with friends, classmates, and roommates XD

Q: Do you do digital art?
A: At the moment no. I have worked with it before but my experience is rather...limited.

Q: Do you think you'll pick up digital art anytime soon??
A: Not planing to right now. Digital art is another world and I'm not quite ready to explore it...and like I said, I'd have to get a good program and whatnot and that's pretty expensive.

Q: What influenced your style?
A: Certainly Sonic X style. That gave me a jumping off point. But my best college friend influenced my background style. Eventually, I developed my own style for drawing my characters although it's still obviously Sonic-based and anime-style shading. But I draw my characters hands and feet and bodies a little more proportional. And they're taller. I've also started trying to be more realistic with muscle/skeletal structure and stuff.

Q: Which of your characters is your favorite?
A: Eh...I'd say it's a tie between Terra and Biohazard because they're the most developed. Daemon's a close second. Bane and Kyou are still under development.

Q: Can I use your characters for my story/comic?
A: No. (If you're a very good friend I might. But othewise no).

Can I draw *insert one of my character's names here?
A: Sure.
Just don't steal them obviously.

Q: OMGEE! CAN WE BE FRIENDS?!?
A: Um...can I get to know you first? Just because I put a favorite on one of your pieces of artwork doesn't mean we're best friends.

Q: Why did you hide my comment? I didn't say anything bad or spam-related.
A: You probably said something that took God's name in vain or used a cuss word. I hate it when my Lord's name is taken in vain and I hate cussing because of some bad experiences involved with it. So I hide it if there happens to be a comment with it. I don't mean any offense to anyone, it's just something that I do.

Q: Can you critique my art?
A: I have no problem critiquing art and I'd be more than willing to. Please keep in mind (and several fellow users know this pretty well about me) I am NOT afraid to point out flaws in a piece. Although I won't if I know the artist might take offense to it. So if you can't take criticism, don't ask me for a critique. Otherwise, send me a link to the piece you'd like me to critique. ^^
Note: Please keep in mind that there are some pieces that I might refuse to critique depending on their content.

Q: Can I critique your art?
A: Certainly! I prefer it actually. Although if you are going to critique my art, I don't care if you're brutally honest (I mean, I've gotten some pretty harsh critiques before) but please give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Saying, "this piece SUCKS!" doesn't really work for me. Okay so my piece sucks...WHY? What would you change? What would you suggest I try next time? That sort of thing.

Q: How long does it take you to critique a piece?
A: For a quick critique, about 10-20 minutes. A formal critique, 30 minutes-2 hours. If I'm critiquing a story, 3-4 hours depending on the length.

Q: What are examples of some pieces you won't critique?
A: I won't critique Yaoi/Yuri, any other sexual pictures, nude art, extremely violent art, art with female characters with terribly enlarged female anatomy (or visa virsa with guys), or inflation, bondage, gender blender, vore, basically any fetish "art." I do not like it, I don't want to see it, and I certainly don't want to stare at it for 30 minutes-2 hours trying to figure out what to say about it.

Q: Will you enter my contest??
A: If I have some spare time, I might, but I've noticed lately I've become rather picky. So it depends on what kind of contest it is.

Q: Do you do requests?
A: I used to but I stopped taking them as of September 2011. DON'T ask please!

Q: Do you do commissions?
A: No.

Q: Do you do art trades?
A: Only with friends or people that I've talked to for a while.

Q: Do you do romance art, like Yaoi and Yuri and that sort of thing?
A: Oh gosh no. That is one of the things I promised to God that I would never draw. I can't even draw straight couples. (Not because it's bad but because I just have a hard time relating. There was ONE exception where I drew a romantic picture. But it was a one-time deal).

Q: What about violent/gore art?
A: I sometimes did a while ago. But I haven't felt any need to go back in that direction. So at the moment no.

Q: Do you RP?
A: Eh, I do but it's only with a few people.

Q: Will you RP with me?
A: In all honesty, probably not. I'm already busy as it is and being an upper-class college student REALLY doesn't help. It just takes a lot of my energy. And, again honestly, even though I do RP with a couple people, I actually am not a huge fan of it unless I know the person I'm RPing will do a decent job. RPing takes a lot out of me. If you are interested still, please see my rules: fav.me/d5qlmln

Q: Can I use your characters in an RP?
A: Please don't.

Q: Do you mind if I watch you?
A: Not one bit.

Q: Watch for a Watch?
A: Um...actually no. I only watch people who either are good friends of mine, who's art that I really do want to watch, or artists that want me to critique their art on a regular basis. But just because you're not on my watch list doesn't mean that I don't sneak around in galleries XD But another reason why I don't like doing a watch for a watch is because it seems like people just want to do it for the numbers.

Q: I just realized, I see you a lot in my comments but you're not one of my watchers. Why?
A: I'm kind of weird like that. I tend to lurk in galleries and visit artists for months and months at a time before even hitting the watch button. I'm very, very selective about which artists I watch, mainly so that my inbox doesn't get overloaded so I lurk, especially artists that don't update all the time. I also tend to take time to critique art with my watchers and I'd rather be sure that the critique will be appreciated instead of shot down or ignored.

Q: How can I keep in contact with you?
A: You'll probably have the best luck here. I'm a hard person to keep in contact with (my cell phone message originally said: "Hey! Most likely I forgot to turn my cell phone on. Leave a message!"). Posting a comment on my profile works pretty well and if you want it private, then send me a note

Q: Do you have an account somewhere besides deviantART? Like Facebook or Twitter?
A: The only other place I have an account (or actually several accounts) is Neopets, which I've been a part of for over 7 years now. I'm known as maverickdragonrider on that site. (Profile here: www.neopets.com/userlookup.pht… ).

Q: How do you not have more pageviews?!?!
A: Um...what I have right now isn't enough? O_o
Considering that I came to this site and didn't expect much to come out of my account and didn't even DREAM I would be where I am right now plays a factor. It doesn't bother me much that I don't have a insane amount of pageviews. I like to stay under the radar most of the time. I'm a lurker by nature online. I tend to pop up every now and then but for the most part...I am a figment of people's imaginations XD

Q: How do you have stamps in your journal without a subby?!?
A: I cheat. They're plz accounts XD

Q: Okay, I don't know you...why did you give me a llama badge?
A: I need a reason??
Well, I like giving out llama badges and I probably found you by hitting the "random deviant" button. I've been doing that a lot ever since the funky feature came out XD

Q: What do the % numbers mean on your "Priorities List"?
A: As follows:
10%-Got the idea, haven't started sketching
20%-Rough sketching
30%-Final sketching
40%-Clean up, ready for inking/inking in progress
50%-Inked and ready for coloring
60%-Light shading/base color
70%-Dark shading/base color on the background
80%-Finishing background
90%-Fine details/Final inking
100%-Completed