Colors Gallery, meet Boxy-0U0
An aspiring cartoonist known for thinking outside the box, @Boxy-0U0, initially started as a lover of indie games and animations such as Friday Night Funkin and other independent franchises until they eventually started to unpack their own ideas and create their own lovable persona known as Boxy and other characters! Nowadays, they continue to break boundaries with comics, fun fanart, and even working on an animated series! But enough rambling, let's unwrap this interview and hear it from themselves!
@Boxy-0U0 what's inside the box? What's your origin story?
Well, I don't really know how to explain the origin of myself, so I'll just explain the origin of my character Boxy instead. You see, I was originally a Friday Night Funkin fan back in the day, and I wanted to make my own character for a future mod. When it was June back in 2022, my teacher brought a box full of camp activities since we have a choice to go there. I wasn't focused on the stuff inside, I focused on only the box.
Then it hit me. I quickly sketched up a design for the original Boxy. He originally had Paper towel tubes for his arms, a robotic hand, and a Squeakly face like it was drawn by 4 year old. He had some changes over the years, but now he's the cute lovable box I first created.
Welcome to My Account (Boxy-0U0) by Boxy-0U0
As a 90s kid, I'd consider myself a great appreciator of your obviously cartoonist inspired artwork! What would you say are your biggest and most important influences when comes to art? What got you started drawing in the first place?
Originally, I was just gonna base my art in completely on Friday Night Funkin, but as I had seen more indie animations I then tried to make my style almost seperate from the Friday Night Style. I first got into art when I was reading Dav Pilkey's Books (Mostly Captain Underpants and DogMan).
I originally wanted to be a comic book artist, but then I got interested in Friday Night Funkin. Friday Night Funkin was one of the huge things for me that got me into art. Then as I had seen more mods, and indie animations, I just knew I wanted to be an artist, like a real cartoon artist!
DogMan And The Tiny Rapper (Fnf concept Mod) by Boxy-0U0
So how'd you end up on Colors Live? How'd our humble, colorful community manage to box you in? What do you like most about it?
Funny thing about that one. I actually just found the Colors Live demo when I was just scrolling through art art apps on the Nintendo Switch. I wanted to try it out so I did and I actually kinda liked it.
So I continue to draw on it more and more and more until I knew that this thing was just the beginning of my artwork. Then after like a few years, my art style improved. What I like most about Colors Live is that it's really easy to make friends on there, and people supporting others no matter what.
Colors Cafe (New Restaurant Idea) by Boxy-0U0
You do a remarkable job at imitating the many different art styles of the cartoons in your "Boxy in different styles" artwork! How did you become so flexible? Do you study these styles intensively or does doing cartoony styles come naturally to you? What's your process?
My inspiration for imitating art styles was from a Youtuber named Harry Gold. He was so awesome for imitating and fixing people trying to draw in those styles. I tried to imitate some art styles at first but it ended up horribly. So as I continued drawing on paper, the more I started to study the arts styles. They have different styles in differents shows, how each of them used their own brushes, lines, coloring, shading.
All those type of things. Pretty soon I learned that I'm more into the cartoony type of styles since I am autistic and I really do like cartoony shows. The process To imitate an other art styles is the first look at the art styles. You cannot just draw it straight ahead. Or it'll just look weird.
First: Look at the art style.
Second: Do a sketch about what you want your character to look like in that said, art style.
Third: Make sure you look at the bright colors. Brushes, shading, all those type of things.
Fourth: Then add the extra details if you wanted to make it look like The old animations. That's my progress of imitating art styles.
Boxy in different art styles (Again) by Boxy-0U0
Do you use any other software or mediums? How does Colors Live fit?
If I wanna do a little bit more detailed with higher quatity canvas, I use a free browser program called Magma. Colors Live is one of the more easier things for me to learn. It's just a program. Like there's no main tutorial, you have to learn the things yourself. Which is what I liked about it and why I stuck to it for years.
We're still working through the Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit situation with the Big N! While we work on securing devkits, what sort of features do you think we should consider for a potential switch 2 version of Colors Live or a Colors Live 2?
I already suggested some ideas before. I suggest there should be a Draw Together Online for the site like back in the Colors!3D era.
Hey zyik by Boxy-0U0
I also suggest a 3D landscape, I got inspired by Paper Mario for that Idea. I also suggested an easy obtainable Badge when you join the Offical Colors Live Discord Server.
#3DPLATFORM by Boxy-0U0
So many boxes... yet if you to choose, which of your own artworks would you say are your favorites and why? What were the fun or challenging to work on?
I say this one: The Birth Of Iscream
This is one of my most favorite pieces I've ever made, and it's my most liked one. The challenging part was this was before the image import update. It was hard for me to do the head, but I think I managed to do it nicely. I'm also planning to recreate it in the future, if I'm still in here that is.
If you had to choose your top 3 Colors Live artworks, what would they be?
This one, because this was the birth of Beo's Red Scar:
Y A Y by Xphantom
This one for being my first fanart:
HOLY CRÃP by Madzzz_MCR
And this one because this was the birth of Da-Bois:
trio by Xphantom
Let's get this squared away! Favorite artist both on and off Colors Live?
On Colors: @VIRUS_ALERT, @sharp_eyed_detective, and @EmeraldGalaxy. Off colors: Jakeneutron, KittenSneeze, and Puppyrelp. Its hard for me to pick just one, so I picked 3 for each.
why this :apple: so mad by VIRUS_ALERT
Helplessly in love by sharp_eyed_detective
JAX by EmeraldGalaxy
So how did you come up with your Boxy persona? Were you really into playing with boxes as a kid(I liked building box forts and hiding in them myself)? What is the story of the adorable little square?
That answers in the first one!
How does one avoid boxing themselves in when it comes to making progress as an artist or just in general in your humble opinion? What's key to growth?
I mostly like to listen to music, watch indie animations, or storytime animators when I'm drawing, it helps me seal myself from the world, so I can be in my own little world. For the growth part, I don't really know, I just suggest letting people find their own inspirations, and trust me, don't just scroll on pinterest, you'll be on there for hours.
Inanimate Insanity: S1 Remaster: Ep:1 Out Now by Boxy-0U0
Tell us about #TSNB! What is it and what is it all about?
Oh, I just wanted to talk about that. May I proudly present my upcoming Animated Series: "The Show Named Boxy".
It's an Horror/Musical/Comedy Animated Series.
After being in isolation for his whole life, Boxy goes around Boxville with his Siblings to learn what he missed over the last 20 years. But thing's aren't what they seems in Boxville, and Boxy starts to dig deep into the past, and learns about what he's capable of.
Here's some details about the main cast: Boxy Marshalla:
Boxy is the smart and confused engineer of the family. As the youngest of the group (20) and very innocent, Boxy wants to learn everything he's missed his entire life. Under the protection of his grumpy and scary brother Beo, and his nice and kind-hearted sister Bella, they try to get Boxy out of trouble, especially from getting him hurt. But Boxy has more to him than he knows, and he wants to find out. But can this lead him to his full potential? (Voice Claim: Matthew Patrick. Aka: MatPat).
Beo Marshalla:
Beo is the oldest of the group (25) (for now). He's the retired assassin since he doesn't want Boxy or Bella what his job is. Beo is very over-protective of Boxy, and would hurt anyone who tries to harm him.
Beo has a troubled past, Beo was a ordinary librarian, but when a robber jumped him, Beo lost his eye. Them he switched to hunt down people responsible for crime all around Boxville, Especially the person who took his eye from him. (Voice Claim: Husk: Hazbin Hotel 2024: Keith David).
Bella is the middle child of the trio (23) (for now). She is the kind hearted one of the group, and wants to become a true Storybook writer. She is also skilled with art, just like Boxy, and helps customizing his machines.
The only thing holding her back from becoming a true writer is the risk of doing it, she worries that she would make one misspell in her story, and get hated for it. So for now, she stays with Boxy and Beo, so she can try to think of it (And make sure that Boxy doesn't feel alone) (Voice Claim: SmokeeBee)
Extra notes about the series:
More characters will be announced as the story progresses, but you have to watch the show to see for yourself. The pilot is planned to release around Febuary.
But the pilot will only be in storyboards, since no one on the team has any good animation program and this show doesn't have any of money for animation, this is a passion project of mine. So expect a little bit of low quality in the pilot. Oh, and the pilot won't have any musical numbers since we both didn't write a song, and we don't have a good musician on the team.
Stay tune for: "The Show Named Boxy". The pilot will release on Youtube somewhere around Febuary of 2026. Colors Live will also make a Cameo in the show.
TSNB Characters (NEWER Designs) by Boxy-0U0
When you're feeling flattened and burned out, who do you handle it? What unboxes your creativity once more when it's time to put the pen to screen/paper?
When I feel burned out from arts, I mostly just take like a few weeks off just to help my mind calm and relax. I sometimes go to far ahead, but I'm autistic, I tend to forget. Whatever. I wanna get my creativity backed up, I watch some indie animations. Those things could be able to help me create back up my creativity again. (That sounded weird in my head).
What're your dreams and aspirations? What do you hope to achieve in the near or far future? With how good you are with your cartoony artwork, is being a cartoonist a goal for you?
Oh, for that. I definitely wanna be a storyboarder in the future. It's more better for me to plan out the scenes than draw them. I'm not really good at backgrounds yet. Uh, I think that they'll do fine for me. It does take time for you to grow your own audience. But you will find them. And you will.
Shout-out time! Who needs to get unboxed next?
Shoutout to my team:
@Jake_Star (Storyboarder on TSNB), @Helkter (Storyboarder on TSNB and Voice Actor), @Woolsteve (Music Composer) and @Superstar64 (Co-Director and Editor).
This was a fun interview, can't wait for the next one. I think that the next one should be @Orbis_Borbis, shoutout to them too. Thanks for having me. This is Boxy Marshalla, "Packing" it up. Get it?
Spykee by Orbis_Borbis
That wraps up our interview with @Boxy-0U0! The Colors Team would like to thank you for your time! Pack yourself up and head to their gallery!
Check out all of our previous interviews here:
For those who may need a reminder
The Artist of the week will be posted every Friday so be sure to tune in!
Prior to that, the artist may be contacted via email or other means at least a week or more in advance so be sure to check your emails( and spam) so you don’t miss out on a chance to be featured.
If you don’t reply within 48 hours another artist may be chosen to be featured for that week instead and you will be in a future artist of the week update.
The announcement of who is the upcoming featured artist will be announced at least 2-3 days in advance or earlier so look out for that too!
If you would like for any of your questions or comments to be featured in an upcoming interview please check out colorslive.com/discord and visit the official artist of the week channel to submit questions/commentary for a chance for those to be answered before Friday.
Suggest a new artist for artist of the week on the forum post in my gallery or by posting with the #heyzyik tag.
What's in the "mystery box"? Take a wild guess in #wc625!
Stay creative!
Zyik & The Colors Team
