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My Art theft experience

It's still happening. Every month dozens of new products spring up on the internet featuring my artwork. Art which I'd not given permission to use. I'm not a fan of my work being taken by someone else without consent- especially when it negatively impacts sales of my own products. I've added a video discussing (and ranting about) my experiences on YouTube and thought I'd share it here:

Removing infringements

After posting the video, I went on to remove 182 instances of copyright infringement! That's at least 300 removals so far in total. There's still more which needs taking down, and no doubt there will be hundreds more to remove over the coming year. For now it's a job I'll have to maintain like cutting my hair or mowing the lawn. If anyone reads this and wants to use my work, that's fine: For non-profit use, be sure to include my name and a link back to this site. For commercial use, send me a message and we can discuss rights to licence high-res versions of artwork you're interested in.

Your thoughts

Has art theft of this nature always been around? Am I wasting time by stressing over it? If people take your art/music/writing/content and sell it without permission online, would you try to do anything about it? Should companies such as eBay or Amazon for example take more responsibility for moderating products for sale on their platforms? If so what might you suggest they do about it? I'd love to know your thoughts.

Also see my previous related posts: 'Art theft and stealing images online' and 'Art theft and further criticism of pod sites' and most recently 'Art theft: The Story continues' for further reading.

It was about time I created some new artwork. This time, an anime style school girl; A design I thought might work well as on a T-shirt or Art print with appeal to fans of Japanese anime and video games. I needed an object or symbol floating between her hands in the middle to denote a video game theme. A '1-up' mushroom (an in-game asset granting 1 extra life as originally seen in the Super Mario games) was added. The piece then gained the title 'Get a Life'! To start with, here's some progress images explaining the process.

Digital Sketching

The digital sketch was created to begin with. As with other recent works, I'd use multiple colours to separate out different parts of the image. This makes its easier for me to read should the line work start getting too messy and complicated. I also sketch the clothing and hair on different layers in Photoshop just in case I decided I wanted to change the hair style or outfit to something else, but still didn't want to lose the pose information. Then the outlines were digitally inked with a thin brush. The original canvas is big- About 12,000 pixel height. this means the image should like sharp even if printed out huge.

Adding Colour

Next I added the flat tones, followed by the first layer of shadows. For a higher quality 'cel' style (using flat tones) I'll usually add at least 2 tones of shading for added depth. Sometimes I'll add another layer of highlights as per the hair in the second coloured image. As mentioned earlier, the 1UP mushroom was added in and some Kanji added to the background. Time-wise I think it took around 20 hours to complete. 15-40 hours for a single character illustration is pretty typical for me.

Now available to buy

Signed A3 Size Digital Print

T-Shirt: Men’s fit

T-Shirt Women’s Fit

If you like the artwork and would like to support my artistic endeavours, I've turned it into an A3 print, available to buy on my store. It'll be hand signed and shipped internationally. Alternatively, the design is available on a T-Shirt in either Men's or Women's fit. All shirts are currently on sale in the site's shop at a reduced price. Thanks for checking it out 🙂

MBTI and Art

Much of my life has been spent attempting to understand both myself and the world I inhabit. Part of this journey of discovery involved reading up on Psychology related topics where I'd learnt about the MBTI (Myres-Briggs Type Indicator). It's a test to reveal which 1 of 16 specific personality types you resemble. You can take the test here if you're interested in seeing which type you belong to.

My type? INTJ. I'm a person with the Introverted (I), Intuitive (N), Thinking (T), and Judging (J) personality traits.

"These thoughtful tacticians love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do. Their inner world is often a private, complex one", says 16personalities.com.

Are all INJTs artists? From what I've found, most aren't! INTJs like myself are usually given the label of 'Architect' or 'Strategist'. I should be the type to work as a scientist or analyst, playing chess and reading technical books for fun. While I do enjoy analysing things, playing board games and would often rather read a manual or something more factual than fiction, I also love art and design. Rather 'ISFP' types are often considered to have the artist personality type in the MBTI world.

As a side-note, 'Psychology Junkie' assigned a Myres-Briggs type to a list of famous fine artists with different personalities on their site. It's interesting but may not be completely accurate. It at least highlights the fact that no matter your personality, there's potential for you to become an artist if that's what you want to do. 

My Experience and thoughts...

One thing I often felt didn't quite work with the MBTI was determining a person's stress sensitivity. Whether or not an individual is more prone to positive or negative emotions makes a big, noticeable difference in one's life choices, habits and interests. Unlike another personality model- 'The Big 5', stress sensitivity wasn't taken into account with the MBTI. Take the big 5 test here. Although 16personalities.com have added a suffix of T for Turbulent / stress-sensitive types and A for Assertive types to help address this. Although this does now kind of indicate 32 potential personality types and starts to defeat the purpose of pigeonholing in order to make quick generalizations. Suffice to say, MBTI is not the perfect personality model, but is still useful.

The reason I bring this up is because unfortunately for me I'm high up on the negative emotions spectrum. A guy with the 'Turbulent' INTJ variant who's easily stressed and cautious. And so my experience of being an INTJ artist might differ from the next INTJ. I want to discuss my experiences all the same.

[Aside: Having a more cautious personality can have it's advantages. Without going in depth; You'll be less likely to get involved in risky activities or having accidents. It'll make you more aware of and considerate towards the people around you - an otherwise common criticism of the INTJ type. To know stress and negativity so well allows one to fully appreciate positivity when it does arrive.]

Why do you create the things you do?

It's a deep and interesting question.

I would speculate that the type of art you focus on i.e. the theme and style would have some correlation to your Myers-Briggs personality type. Although I'm sure other personality dimensions such as orderliness and agreeableness could be used to more likely determine the theme and style an artist tends to prefer. Our tastes are shaped by both our innate personalities, but also the experiences we've had throughout our lives. Having grown up on 80s cartoons as a kid, then moving to anime into my pre-teens ensured a desire to imitate what I thought was inspiring. Hence I went on to produce and sell a million copies of manga related art books as an adult.

Being an INTJ makes me very forward-thinking

When it comes to creating art, I'm often focused on the end result rather than process. This can be challenging when I have a 50 hour image waiting to be created and I'm not always 'in the moment'. I've often felt agitated or unsatisfied until I'm on the home stretch and working on the last 10-20% of an image.

I want to bring beauty into reality

My philosophy for creating has always been "because it looks cool". A sentiment I share with one of my favoured anime directors Yoshiaki Kawajiri. As well as comic artist Todd McFarlane. I care about the aesthetics more than the deeper meaning behind the image. Every artwork an artist creates will communicate something, but my aim is to convey my own tastes with a literal illustration. Style, technique and subject often takes precedent over producing narrative, mood, something abstract and ambiguous.

Don't get me wrong, I can walk into a modern art gallery and understand what I'm looking at, unlike the laymen who might question "what the hell is this supposed to be?", but I have little interest in producing modern art and hate the pretentious side to it. Ascribing meaning to nothing then giving yourself a pat on the back? Yuck!

I want to create perfection

If an image doesn't look as close to perfect as I'm able to produce, I'm unhappy. I'm bound by the limits of my own competency, so while I know I'll never achieve true perfection, if such a thing exists, at least I'll try to get as close to the best thing I'm capable of. Not that perfectionism is an INTJ specific trait, but there's satisfaction when the plan comes together and everything looks just right.

Expertness is important to me. In general I like to be good at everything I do. Perhaps it's some ego thing whereby I don't want to believe I'm as useless as I actually am? But certainly I'm happier when others can recognise my accomplishments. If art happens to be something I'm being praised for, then I'll continue to do it. But more important to what anyone else thinks, I want to produce work to my own self-imposed, exacting standards. 

Best suited art careers for INTJs

INTJs are not the typical, whimsical artist types. INTJs will need to find a way to make certain artistic roles work to suit their needs. I've spent the past two decades dabbling with different artistic jobs and some worked better for me than others. I list these below.

I appreciate no two INTJs are the exactly same, and in fact some won't even understand the point of art! But INJT types like myself are a testament to how it's still possible to pursue and succeed in different disciplines within the field of art and design.

Most art jobs are going to require 1- a lot of time on your own (being an introvert makes this easier) and 2- devoting a lot of time to building competency in your craft. If you happen to be an INJT, or even if you're not, here are some job options within the field of art and design:

Graphic Designer:

Graphic Design roles gives an opportunity to create but with tighter restrictions than working with a blank canvas and paint. For example, you might like the idea of exploring the subtleties of typography and becoming an expert on the use of lettering. It's direct, clean, to the point and serves a purpose. No messy paints required since it's mostly all digital. Freelancing from home might be the way to go if you don't like the idea of mixing with other employees in an office or studio.

Web designer:

Allows for planning how a site should look and function, while coding gives the mathematical and logical circuits of the brain a chance to fire up. There's something quite satisfying about being able to read a page of code as well as design the visuals for an attractive, functional site.

Illustrator:    

This can be for books, ads, promo material. I suspect that understanding the rules of art and design and then applying them is the best way to go for an INTJ type. There are rules to art such as composition and colour theory, and once those rules are established, being able to come up with a plan to maximize each design's potential is the way to go. Illustration has a clear goal to communicate something specific up-front. Often the best advertising illustrations are well thought out and witty, giving an INJT like myself an opportunity to make use of that part of my mind.

Concept Artist:

For those who love to create characters or environments for games and films. INTJs may prefer this as it requires becoming a competent technical artist. Non-INTJ artists who are keen to create but have no talent, little skill or patience may instead gravitate towards abstract, modern art or learn to blag their way to a successful art career. You can't blag a your way into a concept artist roll. Of all the artist fields, I would guess Concept art might be one of the hardest art professions to succeed in due to the fact it's so popular and already holds a large pool of highly competent artists. 

Tattoo artist:

One of the few art careers these days which will allow for a lot of time away from the screen. You'll be more likely to get praise from customers on a daily basis, which helps facilitate the need for acknowledgment of accomplishments. It means working with people and being social which introverts generally prefer minimizing, although it's primarily 1-1 communication. Having worked part-time as a tattoo artist myself for over 10 years, I can say that the aspect of dealing with customers can be challenging but has helped me grow as a person.

Animator:

Although having worked on a several basic animation projects, I've not professionally worked as an animator for any length of time. It requires technical skills and patience which an INTJ might have a better time dealing with. Although animation takes a long time to reach your future vision and it's often repetitive. Despite being a huge fan of anime, cartoons and animation, I've always been put off by the prospect of needing to devote an entire day or more just to make a character move an arm or walk from one room to other for example.

Manga / Comic Artist:

This requires high level of technical ability. If you can handle lot of time on your own, this will suit you. If you like to write and conceptualise your own stories, this is the career for you. Although most employed comic artists will end up spending much of their time working from another writer's script. Having a successful career as a manga ka (artist) or comic artist is extremely tough. I would imagine the task of conveying different emotions through characters might be a little challenging to INTJs at first also.

Fine Artist:

You'll specialise in a particular medium and concentrate on a particular subject matter and type of art i.e. landscapes, portraits. It allows for a lot of autonomy which is great, but you'll need to work on selling which will be the hardest obstacle for an INTJ as selling will involve interactions with other people either face to face or through online videos. Having the freedom to create whatever you want is the dream of many artists, but for most, monetizing your creations will be extremely difficult.

[Aside: Being an artist is not someone who does modern dance, plays drums or writes poetry. As per what was described in a Reddit thread I was reading while researching this post. All those things are considered creative pursuits, sure, but you're only an artist if you design and create something tangible in 99.9% of cases. There's no criticism towards being a dancer, musician or creative writer, however there's no point over complicating definitions.]

To finish off

While I love art, design and illustration I often wonder; if I were to re-play my life would I have chosen it as a career? It's probably too late to trade up this profession so I shouldn't have regrets. I've been doing it a while and couldn't bare to give up the 20,000 or so hours I've invested in my pursuit of art and design. I suspect that inheriting my dad's  traits (a fellow INTJ) while having an artistically minded mum encouraging my creative side would always lead me to where I am now?

I can't feel guilty for my time spent on art. And I'm sure I would engage in it even as a hobby, if not my career. To think of an idea and to then bring it into reality through one's creative endeavours is an amazing thing and a worthwhile goal. No matter your 'type', if you're making or improving something, even through analysis and carefully considered critique then you're on the right track. I would argue, to bring beauty into existence is one of humanities' most important contributions to the universe. What do you think? Are you contributing?

Draw and Chill

Growing up as a kid I'd always be creating my own monsters, mutants and robot characters. Now, as an adult, whenever I have a few free hours to draw something, I often turn to my 'Monsters and Mutants' sketchbook to see what I can come up with. The aim isn't to create anything glossy and polished like a lot of my typical digital work. Instead, it's just about having fun and seeing what ends up on the page.

Creation Process

Most of the time I'll just start drawing random shapes and a creature seems to emerge from the page. Occasionally I'll have an idea to begin with. It might be to re-work one of my childhood drawings, or I'll use something from a film, or game as a starting point.

No-Pressure Drawing

To be honest, I never intended to share any of these. Whenever there's an intention to show off my work it creates an added pressure to try harder or even be more self critical. That's not the point of this sketch book. It's all about drawing to relax and have fun with it. If you're an artist or creator, perhaps it's worth also considering the idea that just because you made a thing, it doesn't have to get posted online. It's quite freeing. But if you decide at a later date to share what you do with the world, there's no harm in that either.

Pen and Ink

For some reason I decided to stick with black and white pen drawings for these. Each image starts off as a pencil sketch. I use my trusty Pentel mechanical pencil with a 2B lead. After I've got the basic gist down, I take over with a Zig Manga Ka Flexible pen. I use Fine for the lines and Medium for larger areas of black. Occasionally I'll use black Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen. Although the Fudegokochi pens have a nice flow of ink, sometimes they can over-flow and spill out a bit too much. I've quit using them as I don't want to wait for ink to be drying. I've recently bought a set of white Gel pens, which I expected to use on these, but not had too much opportunity soo far.

These are all drawn in an A5 Molskine sketchbook:

More creatures to come...

I'm just over two thirds through my sketchbook so far. I intend on finishing it, even if it takes another year or two! If you're interested in commission me to draw you a creature of your own like the above, let me know. Otherwise, I'll continue to rely on what my crazy mind can come up with 🙂

Thoughts about Etsy (as a seller)

I've had my Etsy store online for a few years now. Etsy being an online marketplace built to house arts, crafts and creations by original content creators, artisans and designers. I've never actively promoted it since the store here at Benkrefta.com lists everything I sell on Etsy and more. Also at a lower price since I do not need to pay Etsy's middle-man fees.

This isn't going to be a huge in-depth article about Etsy as a selling platform with how to guides on how to set up an Etsy store. Instead, just a few current thoughts I have after using it for a few years now.

Why do you have an Etsy shop, if you already have an online store?

Initially I set it up hoping to use it more as a marketing tool. A way to direct people from Etsy's market place to my shop here. As it turned out, people preferred just buying via Etsy. Despite mentioning this website on my Etsy page and profile and despite my products being cheaper here at BenKrefta.com, customers didn't seem to want to venture off-site. They were happy to simply complete their purchase through Etsy. Perhaps the thought of going to the source doesn't cross a potential customers mind? Or customers miss the call to visit my site? Perhaps it feels like too much effort to click an extra few links when the product is already right there in front of them? Perhaps customers value Etsy's buyer guarantee in the case something were to go wrong with an order?

Ultimately it doesn't really matter what platform a buyer purchases from. It's all good so long as the customer is happy with the price they pay and I'm happy with the price I get. It's just a shame I can't get to pass on the saving to customers I'm otherwise paying Etsy to host a product listing, process payments and communicate. I already have these facilities set up here.

In short, I've learned that it never hurts to list your products on as many platforms as possible. It's been a benefit to use Etsy in addition to my own website and generates additional sales I would otherwise not have had.

What's it like to use?

As selling platforms goes, It's not bad. Setting up and editing listings or multiple listings is straight forward. More so than my own site which uses the WordPress eCommerce module 'Woo Commerce'.

Payments reach my bank account within a day or two. Not instantly, which is a shame, but a lot quicker than Amazon.com for example. Amazon insists it holds my money for 3 months in case of needing a reserve to deal with potential returns and refunds.

Layouts are clean and everything works as it should without being overly complicated.

A battle against art thieves

One thing I, along with many marketplace sellers often complain about is the amount of businesses which abuse the platform. The site is set up for individuals and small businesses who produce handmade, niche products. However, there are way too many sellers on the site which will, for example, steal a load of images and content online then reproduce it on t-shirts, posters and apparel. Yes, it's against Etsy's terms of service, but there's so much of it and not always easy for a layman to tell who has the right to reproduce what. It becomes a complicated and time-consuming task to moderate. 

On a personal level, I've now seen 8 different sellers who have stolen my artwork and attempted to sell it printed onto products without my permission on Etsy. I don't even regularly search for it, and often just stumble across my stolen art. No doubt there's someone on Etsy right now attempting to profit from my work illegally. I've simply not got around to finding it yet.

I have managed to get my artworks removed from each of the Etsy seller's listings. However as far as I know the offending sellers have never received any disciplinary action or been banned from the site for breaking the law. They are all are still able to sell other products. One or two of my artworks being taken down from their store doesn't seem to be enough to raise questions about the authenticity of their remaining products. So far as I can see these sellers are still blatantly stealing and profiting from other artist's work. This suggests to me that so long as Etsy is making money they're not going to go to any great lengths to remove seller accounts listing products which all obviously infringe upon copyright.

Therefore it seems that the responsibility to educate customers about this situation has fallen upon us artists and original content creators. I went on to mention this on the site in "My Ebay Story".
See below:

My Etsy Story

"I graduated with a 1st class BA Degree in Graphic Media in 2008 and have since worked in the art and design industry since. I've written and illustrated several best-selling how-to-draw books, selling close to a million combined copies to date, translated into 4 other languages and sold globally.

The work I sell on my site and Etsy store is original- created by yours truly from the ground up. Typically an image starts out as a sketch, the line-work then refined before adding the colour and tone. I try to bring my love of varying art styles; from manga to tattoo to graffiti art into my work and with the aim to make each piece eye-catching and unique.

On a personal note; The art game can be tough. I often feel frustrated that I (along with other original art creators) am competing in a huge arena of sellers who produce little more than a carbon copy of an existing picture or art thieves who literally steal an image from Google and stick it onto a product to sell. Several times a year I'm having to request that stores online, including a few other Etsy sellers stop stealing and using my art - it's a never ending battle and I'm just one artist of many this is happening to.

Prospective buyers are often none the wiser to this situation. I'd like to see shoppers support artists who have made the effort to bring something original into this world, who aren't looking for shortcuts or to make a sale off of another artist's works. So please read about the individual creators on Etsy- find out who they are and how they create their arts and crafts. Are they genuine? If you were to purchase an item on Etsy, will the profits support an artisan or simply fall into the pocket of an art thief or merchant who may not even have permission to reproduce the work they've made use of?

Thank you :)"

Etsy Killed Me!

Edit: As of 2022 Esty banned my store from eBay. A rival seller made multiple false claims that I'd used copyrighted images which they owned. This was not the case! I create all my artwork from scratch and have the initial sketches and layered Photoshop files to prove it. Due to multiple cases coming at me simultaneously, I was unable to dispute this situation with Etsy, despite filing counter claims. Etsy refuse to answer any email I send them and have completely cancelled me from their platform. If you like to shop through Etsy and was hoping to buy one of my works there, I apologise. Although my shop is fully stocked with everything I'd had for sale on Etsy and more.

I can’t say I have a great answer for this one since it’s been years since I used anything other than Photoshop. I guess the reason for using something other that Photoshop would be to save money. Or find something that suits you better- whether it be simpler and easier to use or more relevant to creating the type of art you produce. I used to like Paint tool Sai, Painter and Clip Studio Paint  (was known as 'Manga Studio' back in the day when I used it). Krita should do the job if you don’t want to pay any money.

It's also worth looking into tablet based drawing apps which tend to be easier to learn with limited functionality. Autodesk Sketchbook, ArtRage and Procreate are spoken of highly within the artistic community. Although I've personally never tried them - I don't have an Ipad or Tablet computer.

The best thing would be to try all of the above and see which one suits you. Most Apps will provide at least a 30 day free trial if they're not already free. How about setting yourself a project to create an artwork with each piece of software? This would allow you enough time to evaluate it's pros and cons before making a decision about which to use on a regular basis.

When creating a character and a background, would it be best for both to be detailed, or only one of them to keep the focus on one feature?

If the brief / objective is to create a character for example, concept art character designing, then focus entirely on the character. Sure, you can add background elements to give some context, but it’s not necessary to go too detailed unless you are deliberately illustrating a scene.

Do you have any other tips or recommendations on digital drawing or creating an original character?

Before even picking up a pencil, it’s worth writing down 3-6 themes or elements you want to include in the character. Ask yourself- What’s their gender? What genre/s are you designing for? What part of the world are they from? What’s their job/role? What kind of abilities do they have? What tools do they use to help with their duties? What type of clothing would make their job easier? For example:

Gender: Male

Genre: Medieval fantasy

From: The Mountains

Role: Hunter

Abilities: Strength, tactics and cunning

Tools: Bow and Arrow, Axe

Clothing: Something to keep him warm in the mountains and camouflaged and protected when hunting

Once you’ve figured out these questions, think of a feature that makes them special and stand out from every other generic hunter character. Maybe he’s got a crazy scars from battle, or a huge, magical bow that fires 20 arrows at once?

Also consider what wouldn’t work with this character. For example, a metal arm wouldn’t help if you’re in cold environments. Loud and colourful clothing wouldn’t help sneak up on your prey. It’s about creating something over the top and fun, but whilst still being somewhat believable. I touch on this question in both The Artists Guide to Drawing Manga and Digital Manga also.

Enhancing Old Art

There's nothing wrong with returning to your older artwork and attempting to improve it, right? Sometimes old artwork just needs a little tweak or a few small changes to make it significantly better or more consistent.

I decided to amend and update my previous frog girl illustration to give it a Sugar Skull twist. I also limited the colour palette with some tonal adjustments. It matches some of the other, recent artwork in my gallery a little better. Plus people have told me they're liking my skull related artwork, so now here's another to add to the collection!

Maybe one day I'll figure out how to match this stuff up with the all the various manga styles I like playing with also? Producing a consistent gallery or range of images is always going to be a challenge when you love producing so many different types of art styles.

Decorate your walls

A3 size prints are now available of this one to buy via the site's Shop. I decided to give the option to purchase this new version along with the original no-make-up version plus the marker version I'd create a while back. Do you have a preference?

If you're interested, check of my Traditional Vs Digital: Frog Girl blog post to see some work in progress shots of this one.

New Product Updates in the Shop:

Many of the large / A3 prints in the Shop have now been amended to include Matt, Gloss and a Special Metallic paper finishes. Although the print company I just started using for these is currently closed due to the pandemic lock-down, so frog girl will temporarily remain as Gloss only for the time being. I'll take some photos of the new metallic prints in due course. For now, you'll have to take my word for it but they look fantastic! And managed to put a smile on my face 🙂

There's something really cool about an physical piece of art be it a print or original. You just can't get it looking at it on a screen. Especially these metallic prints which have light bouncing off them as I move them in my hands.

At the time of posting, prices for most of the A3 prints are:

£11.99 for Matt: Satin smooth paper avoids reflections
£12.99 for Gloss: Deep colours with a sheen
£16.99 for Metallic: Special finish for spectacular effect when in the light

Shipping here in the UK is: £3.40 per print. Europe: £5. USA and rest of the world is: £8.

For a limited time I'm running the promo code 10OFFPRINTS at the checkout stage. It allows 10% off when spending over £30 on art print orders.

I'd recently finished binge-watching the first 4 seasons of super-hero anime 'My Hero Academia'. Despite initial reservations after the first episode, I ended up getting into it and really enjoying it. My goal was to create some All Might fan art in a similar style to the Tattooed Goku I'd created a few years back. Here's some work in progress images to show the process:

Digital Sketching

I started with a digital sketch using reference from bodybuilder Jay Cutler who reminded me of All Might. This was then refined and tidied up, adding his "I am here" catchphrase to the banner- a line he must have used a million times in the My Hero Academia anime!
Time: 7 Hours to draw

Adding Colour

The first image on the left is probably around 60% through the colouring process. It was getting a bit dark, so brightened it up and added colourful background splatters to finish. I'm very happy with how it it turned out- makes a nice little tribute piece to the series 🙂
Time: 10.5 Hours to colour – 17.5 hours total.

Own The Art Print

As the icon of virtue, hope and strength, All Might can remind us to do good, help others and be strong. Would you'd like the symbol of justice to hang on your walls? And would rather display art which looks a little prettier than a copy-and-paste screen capture from the My Hero Academia anime? I've turned it into an A3 print, available to buy on my store.

Buy The T-Shirt

I'd thought about creating and offering shirts featuring this and other designs in my store for some time. There was enough interest to make it happen, so have also now added All Might:

Thanks for supporting my artistic endeavours, and if you're a Hero Academia fan, let me know. See you next time 🙂

I wanted to create a couple of new fan art pieces for fun. This year I decided to take a crack at Bowsette and Boosette (aka Booette)- a couple of spin-off meme creations from Nintendo’s Mario game series. The goal was to go full-on kawaii manga style with these two- huge eyes and small mouths.

Digital Sketching

I started with a digital sketch. Using multiple colours helps prevent getting confused by too many messy lines all over the place. After Bowsette was finished, I used her as a template for creating Boosette.
Time: 16 Hours

Neat Outlines

Then came time to clean up the artwork by digitally inking it. I kept the line work pretty thin for this project and not using thicker, heavier lines for the outside or varying line weighs like I might do in previous images.
Time: 11.5 Hours

Flat tones

The next stage is laying down the flat tones. The process of sketch, ink, flats and then rendering the flats is a technique and workflow I’ve been using in digital artwork since the late 90s. It’s a process that works out great for being able to isolate certain colours and parts of an image, keeping the artwork looking tidy and smooth, while retaining the line art, rather than painting over it.
Time: 1.6 Hours

Colours and Shading

Then it’s time to choose colours and a light source. This time light is coming from the centre/ top left. I start with a two-tone ‘anime cel’ style to figure out how much shadow the put down. I could leave it at this cel stage by sticking with the flat tones, but I’m often too tempted to start rendering and adding smooth gradations to the tones. As much as I love the typical anime aesthetic, I prefer creating a more 3D, airbrushed and rendered artwork.

Finished Artworks

Lots of rendering time later and both are finished. They make a good pair- by having opposing colour schemes- one with red/orange and the other with purple and blue. The artwork is tight and polished, making it suitable for large scale printing with the original image dimensions each being close to 14,000 pixels high!
Total time: 56 Hours – 28 hours each.

What’s next? I love experimenting in different styles, so I’ll probably take a break from the Kawaii manga look for a while and try something else. But this project showed me if I ever want to create more artwork in this style, I know I can nail it successfully 😊