DeviantArtist Questionnaire

How long have you been on DeviantArt?

5 years, 2 months and 7 days now. Though I've been a silent admirer and lurker here already for years before I began finally giving something back.

What does your username mean?

Drake the Dragon is the protagonist of a story of mine I came up with in my dreams many, many years ago and until recently have been continuing every night and sometimes also during the day. He's also become the main character in almost every video game RPG I played since then, and in games where modding is possible I also tried to recreate him inside the game as close to the story as possible. First sub-chapters of the story can be found inside my deviations and it's almost impossible to miss diverse random pictures of Drake in whatever environment and context while browsing my gallery. Believe it or not, it's not taken from Dragonheart 2 the movie, and I was rather surprised to find the name used in it as well when I watched it the first time. Must be because the name isn't actually a name but a term rather, describing some sub-species of dragon, so it's a general use thing. The -1980 part though was because the name itself was already taken and I was told to add a number. I chose my birth year.

Describe yourself in three words.

Imaginative, open-minded, over-protective (of others) - well, there's more, like universally technically-skilled, empathic/understanding, sharing (especially my knowledge), and yes, a little lazy also, but those 3 are the most prevalent, I guess.

Are you left or right handed?

Right handed.

What was your first deviation?

Going by my gallery it's "The Guardian", which is coming by surprise now, as this is actually a rather later work of mine, but I think it's because when I first started a gallery here I was just uploading years old pieces of mine to sort of create a development documentation timeline, and this one among them made for a fine ID back then. This is one of the early self-made 3D models of, your guessed it, Drake, and his custom playable race for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, one of my favorites, because it's actually the first game ever where I succeeded to create something coming really close to how Drake and his dragons really are as a playable race, and so far I haven't found any other race I could have modded to the same extent and am still interested in the story and gameplay enough to play it. The pose just "came over me" when I started playing around with the models and how they bend in Blender, but in hindsight it's rather fitting.

What is your favourite type of art to create?

I don't consider myself an artist, really, as the pictures I create are mostly comprised of screenshots or renders which I then took apart in a painting app and recombine their pieces to create something new. The modeling, texturing, lately also animating, and primarily scripting work I'm mainly doing "can" be considered art, of course, but in my own case I wouldn't dare comparing the quality of mine to any "real" artist's creations in that context. I'm just dabbling around in this genre. And I don't possess any other artistic skills worth mentioning than that.

If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?

I would really love to be able to "draw" what's in my mind like all the wonderfully talented artists hanging around here, maybe also digitally and coloring it, but honestly, a simple pencil drawing would suffice already. Don't get me wrong, I can do sketches and such, I'm rather good sketching technical things, everything edged and geometrical, anything but round or smooth bodies or, god beware, something living or biological. My art teachers in school said I've got talent, when they saw my drawings of technical things, machines, structures, whole cityscapes, spacecrafts and the like, but I never managed to make anything of it ever since.

What was your first favourite?

It appears it was this one:

(if the Favourites timeline is anything to go by)

I don't know. Back then I was primarily browsing dA galleries on the search for inspiration. I'm getting the best ideas while looking at the art of others. And this isn't like "ah, that's good, I'd need to do the same", or "ah, I could use that in work" or anything along that line, really. No, my mind actually starts racing, flooding me with pictures, imaginations, ideas, all these random thoughts you later create the best piece you ever came up with so far from, whenever I look at the images of others. So I'm browsing galleries of artists and my mind starts working again, mainly. When I actually take something out of them and put it into my favorites, then I either liked it so much that I wanted to keep it, maybe also give sort of a thumbs-up by giving it a , or I was inspired that much of it as a single piece that I consider it a useful reference I need to keep quick access to for later. The first gallery I was browsing through in the intent of selecting pieces for my Favourites it seems was my good friend tiffawolf's, and this was the first piece I found. It's interesting how much looking at it right now makes my mind flood with ideas again, pictures popping up, stories are forming, this white wolf especially makes my imagination go crazy!

What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?

I'm not looking at the type, I'm only interested in the content. For example when I watch an anime nowadays, or play a video game (ha ha, how much I miss playing games already), it's not really the images I'm interested in, or the gameplay, it's the story!

Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?

I met a lot of interesting people and made quite some new friends during my time here on dA so far, but I'm definitely not going to play favorites with my friends or the people I'm looking up to.

If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?

I'm not much the type for meetings in person. I may always have enjoyed it afterwards so far, and definitely would've missed something, if I hadn't done it, in the end, but I'm still not exactly fond of the idea or feeling fine with going out and meeting people, to do, yeah, what exactly again?, whenever it comes up. I may be very social when among people, if not a little too silent and hard to notice I'm even there at all, but I'm not actually "socializing" much in any way.

How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?

A lot of people I met here have helped me a lot with ideas, honest feedback, cooperations even sometimes, and now and then there's even some personal, private talk with those I consider to be friends on here. If it weren't for the people liking my work apparently enough to give me their honest thoughts about it and share their ideas with me, may I call them followers or loyal fans even?, the things I created and shared with a public audience so far would've definitely been much less enjoyable to the masses, and certain problems I encountered along the way would've delayed my progress perhaps even infinitely sometimes.

What are your preferred tools to create art?

As I'm not an artist and the only artistic tasks I'm performing are modeling, texturing and animating, my weapons of choice are Blender, Paint.NET, and due to me modding a game as well, the NifSkope NIF file editor and the game's Construction Set.

What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?

I'm not using places for inspiration. I'm using what I see, hear, and sometimes even smell, everything which makes my imagination go crazy again while experiencing it. The place I "am" creating what I create at though is my room, where there's my desktop and my PC. I'm sleeping in that place, eating breakfast and evening meals, sometimes even lunch as well, working from home for my job, and watching TV when work time's over, only to go to bed again in that place at the end of the night when work is done... not exactly many "places" to choose from to begin with.

What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?

My memory's not that great, or a good one even, and I was having quite some enjoyable times within the last 5 years here on dA, so it'd be hard to choose, even if I "did" remember specific ones still. Repeatedly seeing a lot of people think alike on rather critical topics (art theft, copyright, mutual respect in online communities, etc.) though has always worked in favor of me still feeling welcome and at home around here definitely. It's not so much myself or my own work I'm concerned about here though, I actually couldn't care less about the things I shared publicly or what people fling at me behind a not-as-thick-as-they-might-like-it-to-be wall of internet-anonymity, but who does it to me will also do it to others, people I'm caring for and looking up to even, and this is when it becomes a problem and things "will" get nasty.

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Hmm, and it seems I missed another term characteristic of me up there in point 3: "Wall of Text"! Seriously, it was only simple questions and here I am writing a novel in response. Perhaps I'm not really talkative in person, but when online posting in forums and the like it seems you better not get me started, or I'll write you essays about my mind with absolutely no end in sight!

Oh, well, that was that then. Now, give me that badge and we're done here!  

Ah, and, Happy Birthday, deviantArt! Here's to the next 15 years! Keep doing what you do and it'll be pleasant times ahead of us.