Interview with DarkChibiShadow from DeviantART
April 2, 2009ME: First question,
tell us a bit about yourself!
DCS: Well, My name is DCS. My favorite thing in the
whole wide world is FullMetal Alchemist. My dream is to impact people with my
manga and leave them with something good in their heart. :D
ME: Aww how sweet! LOL
Okay next question! Where did you come up with DarkChibiShadow as a username?
DCS: Uhm…I'm pretty sure
that one day I was trying to think of a new gaia name, like 4 or 5 years ago (Lame
I know). But I just kind of thought of some words that looked good together and
that I liked and it just kind of stuck. I like DCS much better I think aha
ME: I like it too! Okay,
if you could name a few people who inspire you, who would they be?
DCS: Hiromu Arakawa,
Naono Boura...Those are the artist that inspired me through art mostly. Inspiration
to me doesn't usually come from people, it usually comes from things or places
or songs or something. But those two definitely had an impact on me art wise. Hiromu
Arakawa is probably the one person I would like to meet in real life. Just to
shake her hand and say, "Thank you for everything." "You've
changed my life, and now I want to change someone with my manga just like
FullMetal Alchemist has changed me." Or something even cornier like that. aha.
ME: I think we all have
someone like that!! Where is your favorite place to work on your art?
DCS: Oh, I have this
great table where we eat dinner and you can see the T.V. and the kitchen is
right there. And plus the backdoor is to my left so I get a lot of light. I
have a little area with art thats finished and pens on my right and manga and
copic markers over the left. It's my favorite place.
ME: Sounds cool and
convenient!! What tools do you use to draw? [Digitally or traditionally]
DCS: Well, I'm a mostly
traditional artist. I use just a regular pencil and I mostly use 0.5, 0.1, 1.0,
and 00.5 copic inking markers for coloring I'll also use copic markers. For
sizing the pages and text I just use ms paint haha. For toning I use the tones
I've made with Photoshop cs2. I'm pretty simple. That's just how I roll I guess.
ME: Well your art still
looks good despite the simplicity!! Okay so can you tell us a bit about the
process you go through to draw your comics?
DCS: Oh okay. Well, First,
I pretty much just draw some panels without much planning. I'm kind of an
artist like that, even though it's unprofessional. And then I draw in the
panels and bubbles. I usually do a lot of rough sketches then if they're bad I
just fix later. A lot of the times on my pencil pages you can see
"fix" or "lol bad" or something which usually means I'll
get back to it later and re-draw it and sometimes I'll add in more pages. Um
then I use my 1.0 pen to ink panels and bubble lines then I'll usually do one
panel at a time, erasing the pencil lines each time I finish it and then once
it's all penciled in I scan it and then fix it up a bit with ms paint, add text
then open up Photoshop and tone it. It’s pretty simple
ME: Sounds like a good
process to follow! Okay so where do you get your ideas for characters and
stories?
DCS: Well, Like I said mostly just things that pop into my head and then things just grow on things and it happens most of the time, it's because I day dream pretty well but a lot of the time, it comes from maybe doing an rp or something about fullmetal alchemist. The first yaoi I ever made had its roots in fullmetal alchemist. Or sometimes I'll take an object or theme or genre and use that with characters it's mostly just how they come out. Like with Wasso I guess he became very different by the end at first I wanted him to be an ugly character that no one liked and at first no one did, but then I was shocked by his popularity. I like characters that seem like one thing, but really they aren't. It's a lot of randomness when it comes to my manga. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or a good thing.
ME: I think it's a good
thing! Not all things that are structured turn out good. Okay! What is your
favorite manga that you draw, whether it's posted online or not?
DCS: Hmmmmm…Lets see
let's see. That's very hard. I'd love to work on my future work more, but at
the moment I can't, so I'd have to say it's probably WIRES 2 at the moment. But
I really enjoy drawing BANG!Reku and Kiyoshi's Spiritual Detective Agency! Because
the characters are fun and there is a lot of freedom. But I like the characters
in WIRES 2 and also the fan base. There is a lot about WIRES 2 that means a lot
to me. But works that I shouldn't mention are probably, Desert Brothers (That's
my super secret manga). It's going to be entered in a contest if I can ever
find time to finish the pages and it's very recent, and far exceeds the toning
and art style of my current online manga. So mostly, I enjoy whatever I work on.
I like drawing YYM too just cause the paper is so smooth and nice
ME: Ahaha! Good paper
can definitely be encouraging! How do you manage to find time to draw so much?
DCS: The thing is I have
a lot of free time. Drawing manga is about the only thing I do. I don't do anything
special with school, don't take any hard classes. All I do is have Aikido
Tuesday and Thursdays from 630 to 730 otherwise I am free to draw manga. I also
draw extremely fast considering other artists, that's probably why my art
doesn't turn out as good as it could be. I guess I just manage time well D:
ME: Wow lucky!! What is
the longest time you've spent on a picture and/or comic page?
DCS: I don't....remember.
Maybe a few days? I'm lame and only really like doing things all at once. I
guess I just have my own way of doing things...
ME: Okay so what is your
most popular online manga?
DCS: Take a guess
ME: WIRES 2! LOL just
wanted to confirm!
DCS: LOL OF COURSE. It's
pretty popular. It's ranked has reached 12 once on DrunkDuck. My current dream
is to get into top 10 but it's a dream I realize will not be fulfilled, I'm
sure.
ME: It's possible!! And
you can make it happen I'm sure. So while you're drawing do you listen to music
or watch TV? If so, what?
DCS: I mostly listen to
comedians and watch TV. I used to listen to music, but that was when I used to
draw in my room, now not so much. It's mostly TV. Sometimes I put on 300 when
I've feeling uninspired. It’s just so cool that I go "SPAAAAARTAAAAA!"
and draw.
ME: LMAO I can totally
picture you doing that hahaha. Alright what are some of your favorite pieces
that you've drawn? Or it could even be your favorite page from a manga! [Give
links if you wish!]
DCS: Hmmm…Well, I do
enjoy the WIREs Christmas page, but the one page I think I'm most proud of at
the moment is, you know, the one where Wasso was having that dream? And they
were kissing?
*page 237 of WIRES 2 for those who were
wondering.
ME: KAY LAST QUESTIONNN!!
Is there anything else you'd like to add? It can be anything and everything!
DCS: IF YOU ENJOY MY
COMICS EVEN JUST A LITTLE BIT, THEN I AM TRULY HAPPY. Also the kind of artist I
want to be is a shounen artist who secretly draws yaoi and shoujo I think
that's it. Also look out for my new Shounen manga to be posted online in maybe
about 1 year. Until then…MUCH LOVE!
Posted by Yukiko
