SuperCaterina ready for action

FanArtMuseum:When did you begin drawing in your life?

SuperCaterina:-Since always, from what I can remember…
Just kidding! I started doodling something some time before going to kindergarden, maybe when I was 3. At kindergarden I made some more “serious” drawings, but that was only a game for me: now it’s something more!

FM:What made you want to draw?

SC:-I’ve always thought drawings are a door to the artists’ fantasy, so they can be somehow a way to make wishes come true: this is the main reason which made me want to draw.
Moreover I can only say that the “cute & colourful” gives me mostly a lot of inspiration!

FM:Why do you draw fanart?

SC:-Drawing fanart takes me back to my happy childhood times, making me to forget my daily problems: this the why I love drawing my alltime favourite characters and their adventures! Fanart is like an elisir of youth and so I hope I will never loose my “eldest” passions in the future.
They are also a secret ingredient I use to make own original creations: if you have a dejavou by looking my original characters, you will know the why now, eheheh!
I must say I’m very influenced from the creations of others, but this is intentional most of the time: I love putting tributes to anything which is very important to me.

FM:Any specific fandom you enjoy to draw?

SC:- I enjoy drawing videogame characters, especially the ones coming from Super Mario Bros. games: they have been my first videogame of ever when I was 5 and I still love them so much! This has been really “love at first sight”…

FM:Any specific fandom you DONT enjoy to draw?

SC:- There isn’t a specific one: I like taking inspiration from a lot of other fandoms, even if I don’t draw them so often or I don’t draw them at all. Observing the style of others is a kind of training to get better on different techniques: everyone can be a model for me, but I mostly decide to draw something different at the end.
For example….I love the colours used on the Naruto cartoon and sometimes I think “It would be very cool to see these colours on Super Mario’s art!”; but I must say that I have never drawn any Naruto character at least, ahahah!!
To be honest, I don’t enjoy to draw too realistic things. I don’t like reporting reality on a sheet of paper because it never comes out what I see- so I prefear taking a photo. Moreover, I absolutely need to put something magic to my drawings, or I wouldn’t be satisfied.

FM:What kind of original pieces to you enjoy drawing?

SC:-I enjoy creating something similar to what I draw as fandom. I am also very inspired to my daily life and so I mix these real experiences of mine to something deeper and magic. A result of this mixture is my character Super Caterina, for example: she is an original character of mine and she is a mixture between the real me and the Super Mario Bros. characters. Her story is inspired to my real life, but it’s “translated” into something like a Super Mario game story: it may seem simple outside, but it’s full of meanings inside.
In my original creations I also like to put characters who are talking animals, but also mixtures between animals and humans, and also fairies!! I particulary love “fantasy” themes, but I should say they are only my real experiences “dressed up”.
The secret is to filter reality with the eyes of fantasy (everyone got them, I guess) and if the final result of your creation is something which has no sense, don’t worry: fantasy doesn’t have rules!

FM:Do you believe fanart is an Art?

SC:-Why not? As long as it gives strong feelings -like happyness and sadness (none is out!)- and if it’s made with passion! The rest is “mercanchise”… But it’s very difficult to find art made from people who don’t like to draw at all.

FM:If given the possibility, would you accept a job drawing the characters you draw in your fanart?

SC:-Of course! It would be really a great honour for me to work for the people who made (and is making) me dream! I also think that working for something you particulary love can be the best experience of life: I envy so much everyone who lives these kind of dreams!

FM:Anything you would like to say to other fanartists out on the internet?

SC:-I think everyone can be an artist inside, but a lot of people are so “lazy” sometimes….
Drawing is like life: if you want it to be beautiful, you must put a lot of effort on it. The beautiful things of life get soon enough for everyone, so you must always training and working to keep them alive or to get them better and better.

Thank you very much SuperCaterina, its a pleasure to have interviewed you and I hope you continue with your art pieces.

To see her full gallery check it out here!

The Interviewee's self portrait

Fanart Museum:When did you begin drawing in your life?

Living-oxymoron:I only began to take my art seriously when I was about midway through high school. Before that I had doodled around with stuff but nothing really special.

FM:What made you want to draw?

LO:I know it sounds cliche, but anime really inspired me to take art more seriously. I’ve deliberately moved away from that style over the past few years, but I can’t deny my roots.

FM:Why do you draw fanart?

LO:Out of respect, mainly. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. It’s my way of paying homage to the things that have been a large influence on me personally. I like the thought of someone who was actually involved in the making of the original seeing my fanart and feeling a sense of accomplishment. I guess it’s just my way of saying thank you.

FM:Any specific fandom you enjoy to draw?

LO:Most of the fanart that I do is game related. Often I like to put a different spin on the style or look at things from a different angle cause it keeps it fresh. I usually only do a single piece of art per game/series, so I can’t really name something that I draw a lot.

FM:Any specific fandom you DONT enjoy to draw?

LO:There are shows/games that I dislike, or at least wouldn’t do fanart of. I like Pokemon for instance, the games are great, but the marketing and the drooling preteen fans murdered it for me, so I wouldn’t particularly enjoy doing pokemon fanart, simply because I don’t want to be associated with those people.
Or Dragonball Z. I heard the manga was good, but the show was just stupid. Akira Toriyama was the only strike against Chrono Trigger.

FM:What kind of original pieces to you enjoy drawing?

LO:Depends on what mood I’m in, or what’s inspiring me at the time. For example, if I’ve got a problem that needs to be worked out, or I feel there’s something serious that needs attention, I’ll lean toward surrealism. That doesn’t happen all that often anymore though, I can’t usually spare the time to do truly personal art. Typically when I’m not working on art for my job, I draw boards for Apocrypha, which is a graphic novel that I’m doing with my good friend Earthan Flessas.

FM:Do you believe fanart is an Art?

LO:I don’t think I’ve ever heard art referred to in the singular noun form before. If you’re asking if I think fanart should be considered art, then yes. There’s no reason to strip it of it’s “art” status simply because it’s derivative of another person’s work. One could say a painting done in an impressionist style is derivative of Monet’s work, but it’s still considered art. Even if the painting contains the same woman with the parasol. Now we’re getting into the difference between fine art vs. professional vs. amateur art. At this point it’s just people being elitist.

FM:If given the possibility, would you accept a job drawing the characters you draw in your fanart?

LO:Who wouldn’t? I would jump at a chance to work with Valve or Nintendo or Capcom or Konami. I hope I’ll be able to at some point in the future.

FM:Anything you would like to say to other fanartists out on the internet?

LO:Versatility and adaptability is extremely valuable. Also dedication and working hard is far more valuable than talent. It takes years to get good; even an extremely talented person will still suck if they don’t work hard at it.

Us at the Fanart Museum would like to thank living-oxymoron for his contributions to the fanart scene as well as generously giving us this fabulous interview.

Check out his beautiful gallery right here!

Dark Mario.

First up we have living-oxymoron and his piece entitled Super Mario Brothers Fanart.  An amazing piece that brings forth another popular idea within the fan art scene, the change in style and rendering of the original property.  Here we see how he has taken the otherwise rather simple and cartoonlike atmosphere of Mario and his world, consisting of cartoon proportions, bright colours and lighthearted ambiance and turned it into a dark and twisted, realistically proportioned dystopian image.  Mario has been given a proper human anatomy, and despite still retaining his red and blue colours they have been given a darker hue, blending well into the colour scheme that the artist has given the piece.  The image is a surreal look at the videogame, portraying the Koopa Troopas as actual realistically rendered turtles with wings, while Piranha plants and Goombas are portrayed in a similar style to the original but with an added layer of complexity, such as a sense of construction and form.  A fine looking and impressive piece in all.

Look at him run!

Next up we have the first animated piece in the museum, a beautiful walk cycle by Sven-da-man, made in Flash.  Unlike the previous drawing, this Mario has more of a classic cartoon like proportion, though still stylized from the canon design of the character.  Most notably this character is quite plump in comparison, but it gives an extra sense of weight to the character, and thus the small amount of frames in the loop are enough to convey the walk and mass of the character due to the expertly posed drawings of him.  In a sense, the character has a more jolly feel to him, perhaps reminiscent to Santa Claus, making him more appealing that his real counterpart.

Follow the yellow block road!

Next up we have a very classic look at the character, perfectly capturing the feel of the character and world unlike the previous pieces.  The colours are all ‘correct’ and the proportions and overall design of Mario and his enemies are spot on from the games and official artwork.  However, in that sense the image lacks a sense of personal touch in comparison.  Since theres nothing here thats different from the official artwork except perhaps the composition.  Not to talk bad of the piece, since its a nice looking piece none the less, but being fan art one would want some more personality from the artist to seep through, to personalize it and make him into his own character.

For more of bad-bloods’ artwork, follow this link.

Oh, the epicness!

Last in the gallery is The Legend: Super Mario Bros 3 by SuperCaterina.  As the caption suggests, this image is all about a sense of epic.  The main detail that makes it epic is the composition, adding so many elements from the game and redrawn them into the artist’s style, featuring mostly a cuter and overall more appealing design choice.  The way the artist has placed Bowser and Mario at one side each, and despite size differences and distance away from each other portrayed them as equals in both mass and character.  The image is filled with little details such as the enemies and props from the game, enabling a fun and overall cool drawing.

The Museum is closed for the day now, welcome back for when the next gallery opens.

Humanized anthropomorphism!

As one can see from this image, she has a unique style of her own, filled with personality and confidence.  However, her strongest trait within her art is that even though its digital, she tries to hide it often times.  Unless one zooms in very deep and truly look at every stroke, one can’t see that its all stylus strokes.  Rather, despite naturally increasing effectiveness of the drawing, she goes at it at a very traditional manner, creating a piece that is reminiscent of painting, most notably water colors.

The piece to the left entitled Foxy for bakanaartist has a enjoyable idea set in motion, though its been done a lot on the Internet.  Taking an anthropomorphic animal and drawing them as humans.  I have always found that there’s a certain skill involved within that, since there’s so much speculation the artist has to go through, regarding hair colour (if the animal has no hair) clothes (if it has no clothes) and facial structure.  While this one probably required a minimum of speculation due to the fact the original character has clothing and his fur was orange, thus the most focus is on the facial structure.  Regardless, its a fine piece worthy your attention.

Here kitty kitty kitty...

This next drawing is one of my favorites, though mostly due to me liking the character.  However, the rendering of this one deserves its own praise.  The character is a bit of a brute, visually at least, so its interesting to see these soft strokes and colors being used to portray the destroyer of the earth.  However, it does suit his personality, which despite his clumsiness and being thick headed, is a caring soul with a heart of gold.  So through the art work Nemurism has managed to render the inner qualities of Hellboy into his outer qualities.

The cats are cute too though.

More than meets the eye

Another fine piece in her gallery, based on the ever popular Transformers series.  The composition here is the key to the entire picture.  The main idea here is ‘size’.  Optimus Prime is drawn fairly well with great colouring and rendering, though I find the little girl to blend a little too well into the image.  However, as previously stated, the key concept here is size.  Optimus Prime has the entire frame for himself, with very little negative space around or within him.  He is also cropped out at the edges, so we don’t even see all of him, increasing the sense of size yet again.  The third detail that tops of the subject of size is the fact the girl is there.  Size is relevant, so adding this little human girl in here we immediately have a point of reference to the size of him as a whole, giving us a gargantuan impression of him.  A fine piece indeed.

Funtastic Four!

This piece appropriately titled expressions may be my absolute favorite though, mostly due to my background as an amateur comic artist and animator.  Expressions are usually key in portraying most emotions, or at least to give a certain personal feeling that body language cant.  Here she portrays four different characters from the video game series Star Fox, three portraits each for a total of twelve different emotions and expressions.  Being Japanese Nemurism naturally has a fond appreciation for manga and anime visuals, as seen here in the expressions, using details such as the single sweat drop and popping vein in the portraits.  However, they are used sparingly and appropriately here, rather than just being added for the heck of it as so many Japanophiles do on the web.

Thats it for now, if you haven’t already checked out her artwork online then do so now here.

Til next time when another gallery opens up.

The first piece in the gallery is an aptly titled Spider-man by artist Artifact911.

Check out those hands!

The artwork for this one is simply amazing.  The rendering of the lines, the complex pose made easy, the angle of the anatomy, the intrinsic design of the fingers, the simple but effective shading, and the detailed and fleshed out muscles.  However, while I love the background, I cant praise Artifact911 for it, since as he said himself that it was made by a colleague struckdumb.  His choice of using this background is well made though, giving a gritty texture to the image as a whole, and complements the otherwise very detailed Spiderman.

The next beautiful piece is Spider Man over city by RobHough.

Dont fall Spidey!

This is an amazing picture, or rather, an amazing painting.  Most Fan Art is made for the internet, and thus made to be easily uploaded, consisting of drawing and coloring the majority or all of it in photoshop and then submitting it online.  However, RobHough took a classical form of gouache painting to a contemporary pop culture icon.  This is an impressive accomplishment, and deservant of praise.  The painting itself is amazing in every aspect.  Spiderman’s pose perfectly captures the sense of roaming through the air, and the perspective of the city is equally fantastic, complementing the body as well.  He also made a good choice of color scheme with the buildings in contrast with Spiderman.  Thats another trick to Fan Art: color schemes are somewhat restricted.  While the city here could have been coloured in any number of ways, Spiderman still needs to have his scheme of red and blue.  So RobHough took advantage of the freedom of painting the city, and created a believable yet contrasting color againts Spidey.

The painting is for sale by the way on eBay.

Next is a little smaller and simpler image yet equally enjoyable Spiderman drawing by marciotakara entitled mini action Spider Man.

Stylization rocks!

This is a fine piece as well, though lacking the detail and sense of epic that the previous two had.  It makes up for this though with the simple but effective composition.  While the artist has just placed Spiderman smack in the middle, a very amateur choice, it works within the white background.  By having him in the middle like this he has prevented the image from being particularly boring, and the signature in the corner gives the whole picture a sense of professionalism as well as adding it some style.  Spidey himself is very appealing, reminiscent of the Batman Animated Series ‘dark deco’ art style.  He has a very strong sillhouette that gives the image so much more recognizability as well as makingit believable.  marciotakara proves that less can definitely be more.

The fourth drawing in the gallery is Bitches love Spider man, by Olympic-Dames.

Spider kid?

Her drawing here fulfills the common purpose of fan service that a lot of fan art does.  Here she portrays the relationship between Peter Parker and Mary Jane in an appealing and enjoyable image, pleasing the fans of the pairing.  The composition of the image is a simple one, but it works well due to the focus on the characters rather than the background.  However, the background design here is very unappealing in comparison the the positive shapes of the characters.  Despite the background though, the character construction and expressions are very well done and make the image as a whole great.

That finishes of the themed gallery of Spiderman.  There are many more images on the web, but these are the more notable ones I found on deviantart that weren’t proffesional work from comic book artists working on the character.

Oh the possibilities!

The Star Wars cross over is a very easy transition for Avatar, due to the same epic scale the story is set at, as well as similar themes and subject matter, though not set up with the same equivalent characters and naturally a different genre.

The Naruto cross over is even easier due to this time sharing more influences, such as the anime look as well as better character equivalents, most notably Zuko as Sasuke and Sokka as Shikimaru, due to Zuko/Sasuke sharing the same solemn and melancholy personality, as well as portrayed as very powerful but socially awkward.  Sokka/Shikimaru work well with the aloofness of both characters as well as their role of the ‘brains’ of their respective shows.

Fullmetal Alchemist is a story of two brothers in long spanning search of retrieving their original bodies.  Isaia immediately saw the potential of taking another duo from Avatar, the Zuko and Iroh one to complement Edward and Alphonse.  Zuko as Edward works well due to his role as a pretty boy and his rashness, though still calm and collected if needed.  Iroh as Al is an even better idea though, as they both work as a conscience for their partners, as well as a slight mentor or at least colleague.

But as I stated before, the gem is the Ren & Stimpy inspired Momo and Appa.  The genius of this fan art is the fact that they don’t get top billing, are silent characters and despite their importance for alot of plot elements within the show, they are rarely discussed as much as the more immediately important protagonists.  Also, despite both series having originated on Nickelodeon, R & S were cancelled years before Avatar made the scene, thus not showing much relevance other than being a veteran cartoon.  They also don’t share genres, R & S being a slapstick comedy and Avatar is a action adventure series.  Yet despite all the differences these shows have, Isaia saw a single strand that connected them, and the result is pure genius.  The similarities are immediately clear!  Ren & Stimpy revolve around two animals of different species, one larger and one smaller, constantly hostile towards each other.  Avatar has a large animal and a small animal, often disagreeing with each other.  Thus by taking the character design of Momo and Appa, adding it the Spumco visual design, as well as inserting the facial expressions and personalities of R & S to the corresponding characters, Isaia creates a new spawn of Momo and Appa, appealing to both fans of Avatar as well as Ren & Stimpy.

So as one can see, cross overs are an intriguing and creative fan art output, that create a new and inventive form of both properties and usually have some real creative logic behind it all.  I shall present my favorite cross over fan art in the future.

Check out Isaia’s other fan art as well as original work on her deviantart account.

First of all, I would like to demonstrate the differences between the actual artwork of the animation to her own finished personal pieces.

Perfectly captures the character's full body

Foamy from the show

Observing the character to the right you can see how Rufftoon has worked on the character to allow for her own take on the visual design.  While the original animation show him somewhat straight lined, action line has no curve and alot of the shapes seem a bit jagged.  Compared to her own take, granted, wasn’t the time induced labor that is animation, but did bring more life into Foaming Mouth Guy.  Arms are at angles, elbows bent, action line is curved in interesting ways, asymmetrical poses and simply more intense despite not being animated.  A fine work.

Uncle Iroh added into a historical event for hurmorous results.

The other work Reality Shift 5 is another piece of eye candy, playing around with a feature very prominent in fan art: cross over.  Here she has taken Iroh’s unhealthy love for tea and placed him in a situation that brings out this trait immensely, more than would ever be possible within the restrictions of the canon of the series.  This unique look into his personality is very in character, and the fact that its well drawn too doesn’t hurt either.  Well articulated poses and an interesting blue color scheme to portray night really gives a calm soothing feeling despite the blatant action in the scene.  One notable detail is the yellow color almost in the center, the visual effect of post physical contact between the foot and victim.  Its a great addition due to the fact that its the main point of action in the image, and to bring our attention to the point where violence is performed gives the whole piece a well formed sense of composition.

Double Fan Art.

The homage is clear

She was also inspired by another artist by the name of Leo Ortolani who draws a comic entitled Ratman.  As a fan of the work, she redesigned the main cast of Avatar in an Ortolani design, featuring notable cheek bones, small sized individuals as well as hands consisting of three bulges for fingers and no palms.  If one takes a look at Sokka and Zuko (dark skinned boy and red scarred boy) their poses are almost identical to the left character of the Ratman strip to the right.  The idea of taking two different intellectual properties and taking elements from both is an exciting one, one seen in many other fan works.  Here it is done with great vigor, though I have to say despite the attempt to have Katara look bored or unacceptable of the situation, her pose comes of as boring and life less compared to the other characters.

Off model fun.

To the right there’s another fine piece know as Avatar redesigns for fun.  Here the characters where redrawn not just in a new style, but an original new style, all because of a badly drawn foot according to her own words.  I personally enjoy these Chibi personifications of them, my favorites being the girls, due to their more interesting and varied poses compared to the others (well, Zuko is good too).  Regardless, its common for fan artists to put their personal spin on characters, but Rufftoon has now show 3 different variations of them, while still being perfectly recognizable.  This piece deserves an honorable mention.

Practice Sketches

Practice makes perfect

As can be seen in these sketches and self made model sheets, Rufftoon takes a lot of time and effort to draw these characters.  As stated, she does work with these individuals professionally, so it is simply an employee’s responsibility to be able to draw the characters.  Regardless, her personal work revolving around these characters are of just the same caliber as her paid work, and that’s the cornerstone of Rufftoon’s fan art: professionalism.  Most fan artists are amateurs by definition, with varied artistic abilities and skills.  To have someone who works with these characters every day (not anymore due to the end of the series) want to draw them in their free time is an impressive accomplishment and proof of their personal respect for the franchise and characters.

To end this gallery we will now take a look at Rufftoon’s original work for sake of comparison.

Fun minimalsim.

Dragons and Demons.

24 hour comic

As we can see, there’s nothing wrong with her imagination, so that’s not a reason for her drawing all these copyrighted characters.  She draws fanart professionally as well as personally because she enjoys the ideas of other people and the characters they come up with, and shows her own love for them by expressing it through art.  She is however not constricted to fan art and can manage impressive original characters and premises.

Rufftoon is an amazing artist in her own right, but as a fan artist she is one of the best in terms of technical excellence as well as imagination, surely a contender for best fan artist on the internet.

Click the flying bison to see her full gallery

While articles shall be written about this special niche art, it will mostly showcase some of an artist’s best works as well as links to their websites and portfolios for a more in depth look at their other non Fan Art related masterpieces.  I will bring analysis to the art work as well as critique from an objective stand point, compare the fan art to the intellectual property that it was derived from as well as discuss said intellectual property.  I will gladly accept tips and ideas from museum visitors of artists they believe might suit for a gallery here on the marble clad museum.

I would also like to thank Deviantart, the site where most of these works will come from due to the collection of artists who produce a steady supply of these drawings.  If you haven’t already heard of the site I advice you visit it now.  Stay tuned otherwise for the galleries to open!

The home page of the site.