Colors Gallery, meet Kalyee_Rod
@Kaylee_Rod strikes(also known as mimic or kiwi) us as someone who is extreme lover of cartoons and indies with exceptional skill in their craft. They also have love of DnD and are an aspiring game developer! But enough introducing, let's get to know them more personally!
Tell us about yourself @Kaylee_Rod ! Who are you and what should everyone know?
"Hi, I'm Kaylee but I go by kiwi. I'm a non_binary dork who does a lot of art and stuff, mainly drawing hazbin hotel and helluva boss fan art. I run a lot of d&d campaigns and I'm a really bad game developer!"
cavern joins the battle by Kaylee_Rod
Pokemon, Hollow Knight, and The Legend of Zelda are among I and many other peoples favorite franchises and it's easy to see their influence in your works! What else would you see inspired you? What made you begin your art journey?
"My main inspirations right now are hazbin hotel and helluva boss but other animated shows like lackadaisy, murder drones, and the amazing digital circus also inspire me as I love seeing shows aimed at more mature audiences. As for how I started art I really was inspired by pokemon and drew a lot of them and then started to draw other things like cat and dragons."
slugs by Kaylee_Rod
What attracted you to the Colors Gallery? How did you discover us and what keeps you around?
"I found colors because my dad got me it for Christmas one year and I stayed because colors was fun and it helped me escape from reality. The people here are nicer than most I met in real life. As for other softwares and mediums I'm slowly learning toon boom harmony for animation because it's the industry standard. I also have a sketchbook on me at all times."
Your art has really come a long way in the 2 years you've been with us! What has been the most challenging part of your growth? Which Colors artworks would you say you're most proud of?
"The 3 artworks I'm most proud of are queen bee which is my most liked piece and my favorite, Cherri bomb because I love the explosion in the background and I love the lighting on it. Sallie may is my 3rd favorite of mine because the background is probably the best I ever made and the buildings are beautiful."
queen bee by Kaylee_Rod
cherri bomb by Kaylee_Rod
sallie may by Kaylee_Rod
Top 3 favorites from others in the gallery?
"As for my top 3 from others galleries, the back bone of the vees by @Paracetamol is one of my favs as I love velvette and they drew them so well, levitating by @SoggyBread9910 the lighting is just beautiful and the background is amazing, I love how clear the expressions are, the art is amazing keep it up! My last favorite art work is family night by @puzzled and I know I requested this but even without that fact I love it, dragapult and dreepy are my favorite pokemon and puzzled’s style has always been one of my favorites, the background is stunning."
The backbone of the vees by Paracetamol
Levitating by SoggyBread9910
Family Night by Puzzled
I love Hollow Knight! Being a Hollow Knight fan yourself, what are your wishes for the sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong? Do you play any other Metroidvanias?
"My main hope for silksong is to have more lovable characters, Quirrel’s death destroyed me and I want to feel that pain again. I also want more beautiful places like the blue lake or the lake of unn. Also more on the grimm trope because they are one of the best parts of the game and some vessels that escaped the abyss and made it to farloom, if ghost/the knight could make it out of hollownest then so could others."
What advice would you say is something you wish you knew years ago?
"First off, know when to stop and take a break. It's hard to stop but taking a break but when art feels like it's more of a chore than fun stopping will make you feel so much better. My next piece of advice is Don't feel like you have to do art without lines, i believed at one point in time that doing lineless art was the only way to improve but its not, draw in whatever way makes you happy because you improve with experience Also layers, learn how to use them as they will make your life 100 times easier. I didn't understand them at first and my life was bad back then what hard."
What are your thoughts on tracing? Should a young artist trace in order to learn and gain line confidence? Or should they avoid tracing liek the plague? If they should trace, what should they practice and how long should they do it?
"I believe that tracing as a young artist to learn things like how to draw proportions and things like that. You shouldn't directly trace but getting a pose or an object you don't know how to draw (violins) or things like that is ok and if it's more direct tracing credit the artist. As you get more experience you should do it less often so you dont have to use it all the time. Also scene redraws are different from tracing, just throwing that out there."
What are your next big plans? What do you have in mind for the near or far future?
"Well once I finally finish highschool I'm moving in with my friends and im hoping to get hired for animation on lackadaisy, hazbin hotel and helluva boss but for near future im hoping to start putting animations out into the world on youtube because the earlier you start the better chance you have to succeed."
lackadaisy by Kaylee_Rod
What do you do to handle stress or burning out?
"For stress I talk to my friend as they are my only support system right now and they are amazing, talking to people you trust when stressed helps a lot. As for burn out I have no clue as I'm struggling with it right now."
loona and octavia by Kaylee_Rod
Nature or nurture?
"Nurture. I have a hard time trusting people and I don't really talk much in irl because of how I was raised and trauma, the world around you shapes who you are and I often think about how much different my life would be if i was born to a different family or if I didn't have to move away from everyone i cared out this year for no real reason other than my parents wanted to."
seer by Kaylee_Rod
If you could design a metroidvania or any other type of game what would it be like? Who would you want to develop it?
"I have a few ideas but no that are really developed in my mind, one I'm running as a d&d campaign with my friends about slug gods and I have quite a few other ideas running around my head like one were you play as a fox thing with a lot of other cool animal people but no of my ideas are developed much. I'm on a developer team with my friends making a different game currently so maybe after that we will start on one of my ideas."
Who do you want to shoutout?
"I want to shout out @Paracetamol and @SoggyBread9910, they make amazing hazbin hotel and helluva boss art, I would also like to shout out @Your_local_eevee as they were my first friend on colors and even if they lost their nintendo switch I feel like I wouldn't have continued colored without their kind words and nice comments. Finally I would like to shout my irl friends for their constant encouragement and general help through this hard part of my life. They have been helping me more than I could ever thank them for, even helping me figure out what to write for this, so thank you!"
That wraps up our interview with @Kaylee_Rod ! The Colors Team would like to thank you for your time! I recommend keeping an eye on them!
Check out all of our previous interviews here:
http://colorslive.com/page/Artist-of-the-week-interview-list
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 eariler 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 on my gallery or by posting with the #heyzyik tag.
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Stay creative!
Zyik & The Colors Team
