Colors Gallery, meet PrettyGoodScience
@PrettyGoodScience is a fan of sci-fi, an enjoyer of both cutesy and dystopian themes and now comes to us as our next artist of week! You're all in for a pretty good time! Let's get to the interview!
@PrettyGoodScience hope you're doing pretty good! Tell us about yourself! What're you about?
"About myself; I'm a 22 year old trans masculine tech associate with passion in computing, and have been a hobbyist artist for as long as I could remember. Character design and story writing have always been my places of interest and I made my first original character when I was 6; a haunted doll named Rags! She was spooky but kind, and remarkably, that still fairly accurately represents my writing style; portraying "monsters" as conscious and feeling individuals."
Cyclops Cutie! by PrettyGoodScience
What are your motivations and inspirations? I checked out not just your Colors Gallery but also your deviant art gallery listed you have listed as well and you have a ton of interesting and cute characters! How did you come up with them?
"My motivation is simply enjoying story writing! It's just always clicked with me, not fully sure why. My notable inspirations are Sonic the Hedgehog, Balan Wonderworld, Skullgirls (Double specifically), Nintendo properties (like Kirby and Pokemon!) and western cartoons, as well as vivid nightmares I've previously had."
Muet and Juju by PrettyGoodScience
You've been with us since 2021! How did you discover the gallery? What made you join?
"I don't fully remember how I found Colors!Live, I think it was in an advertisement in the Switch E-Shop while I was buying a game. I'd heard of Colors for the 3DS, but had predominantly used Pokemon Art Academy. I heard Colors had layer features, but was really keen about the sonar pen. I have a switch lite, and the idea of portable digital artwork was very appealing to me after getting my switch lite as an easter gift."
OC: Conodo by PrettyGoodScience
Since you have a lot of other art on your deviant art account I assume that means you use quite a few other software/mediums as well? What else do you use and how does Colors Live fit in? Are there any features in Colors Live that you eventually want to see?
"In 2017, I used mainly Pokemon Art Academy, but also Gimp and a hand-me-down Bamboo Wacom tablet from my biological uncle (the Gimp illustrations were more on my Tumblr than my DeviantArt). Though I briefly pirated Sai in 2018, I switched to using Krita instead as it felt more respectful. Around 2020 I got my Surface Pro as a gift from my new foster father, continuing to use Krita before decidedly switching to Clip Studio Paint. In 2021, the Surface Pro gave out and that's about when my Switch Lite and Colors came into the mix. Though it wasn't ever my main medium, it was something fun to do as well as an entertaining challenge to prove that tidy and appealing artwork could be achieved with unusual or limited resources. In 2022, I bought myself a new art tablet; the XP-Pen Innovator 16, which has been serving me fairly well for the past three years, but is a little more glitchy than it used to be... Additionally, I received an iPad for the holidays that I've had for around two and a half years as well! I consider myself very fortunate in being able to have the wide variety of mediums that I do..."
"As for new features for Colors!Live? These are possibly things you've heard before, but perhaps a 'Magic Wand' style selection tool, layer masks, and layer modes? ('Normal', Multiply, Divide, etc) Some of these features would be quite tricky to add! To me personally, the most important would be a 'Magic Wand' selection tool, and the ability to shrink, expand, and invert the selection."
What are your artworks that you're most proud of?
As for some of my favorite artwork of mine...
-https://www.deviantart.com/prettygoodscience/art/Onioki-Slight-Redesign-937546064
My sona, so of course he's here!
-https://www.deviantart.com/prettygoodscience/art/Piko-Piko-822133847
A piece of Sonic the Hedgehog fanart that has aged very well.
-https://www.deviantart.com/prettygoodscience/art/A-little-gift-679730951
A very old piece of artwork I had done on the 3DS, and one of the early halmarks of my DeviantArt account.
(Please note; I'm moving away from DeviantArt and have lost interest in the site, my profile reflects this, but I'll be switching gears to Tumblr! https://www.tumblr.com/prettygoodscience )
Top 3 favorite Colors artworks?
My top three favorite Colors!Live artworks are probably...
Glamrock Chica by PrettyGoodScience
Fan artwork of Glamrock Chica from Five Nights at Freddy's. One of my earliest Colors! drawings that has aged well.
Jumbulee! (gift) by PrettyGoodScience
A gift of a friend's character that turned out very cute! I also feel like it has aged well!
Sonic OC: Wheels the Red Panda by PrettyGoodScience
Artwork of a character I designed for Sonic the Hedgehog. I had decided it would be nastolgic and fun for old time's sake to visit Colors!Live and use some new tricks to make an artwork.
What are your favorite aspects of creating art? Is it the result or the process that does it for you?
"My favorite aspect of creating art is probably using it as an opportunity to reflect on myself. Many of my characters share experiences with me, and many of my stories are to cope with and process my experiences. It also acts as a way for me to spend time with close friends, bonding over characters and socializing with one another. Though my heart for career is in tech, art will never leave as a hobby of mine."
@PrettyGoodScience is an interesting user name! I'm guessing you're big into science? What's your favorite type of science(mines is biology)? Do you want to be a scientist or do you just enjoy discovering new things? Do you know of any rare but interesting scientific facts?
"I mostly like science themes! Questioning the mortality of an intelligent machine or the feelings of a freak of nature both tie in well with sci-fi as a whole. I actually rarely read books or watch films, so it's hard to say what my favorite sci-fi would be. Some of my favorite character designs and inspirations come from Elsword; a Korean MMO from the early 2000s, which does include science fiction elements from time to time. Do I know trivia? Well, most of my facts are odds and ends, like earthworms being unisex, male calico cats being caused by a mutation of their sex genes (the same applies to female orange cats), spider and tarantula legs essentially being a series of hydraulics, and other one-off facts."
What do you love about sci-fi? Also which ones are your favorites and why?
"Well for Sci-fi, I feel like the genre lends itself well to dystopian themes of programs and the way they're coming to replace people more over the years, but also opens the door to flashy architecture design, experimental abominations gone wrong, and commentary about the moral ramifications of the constant pursuit of progress in technology."
"Generally, it's just an aesthetic I enjoy working with in story-writing!"
Do you have any advice for any young artist or just advice in general?
"As far as advice for young artists... some of this might sound cliche, but sometimes something seems cheesy because it has merit... there were multiple times I nearly quit artwork because I always felt as though my sibling's art was better than mine, so what was the point? Art isn't about becoming a 'bootleg' of an artist you idolize, instead it's about becoming a better version of yourself. Have confidence, because that confidence will keep you going. I've kept track of my artwork since I was 12, and I remember feeling like I was the most awesome artist in the UNIVERSE when making some of the pieces that I now look back on and chuckle at... but that's important! Believing that your always doing a great job because your own artwork is enough. Your art is special because it's yours, and nobody else can emulate that."
What are you plans or goals for the future?
"My future goals mostly consist of trying to monetize my artwork in the midst of getting a car, and to move on from websites like DeviantArt to leave burnt bridges behind. Life happens, and that's okay- DeviantArt once felt like a safespace, but in recent years it's come to feel more and more like a desolate trainwreck..."
Anyone you want to shoutout?
"As for someone to shout out? Honestly, I have no idea. Most of the time I stay to my own little corner, and I don't attribute my progress with anyone in particular..."
Though, I do care about my sibling quite dearly, so perhaps they're who I'll give a shoutout;
https://www.tumblr.com/tobytoon
"If I'm allowed to share a social, I would encourage folks who have a Tumblr and love Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, and Japanese culture to give them a follow!"
That wraps up our interview with @PrettyGoodScience ! The Colors Team would like to thank you for your time! We suggest giving their gallery a pretty good view!
Check out the interview with our previous artist of the week @Loaf-of-Bread_
http://colorslive.com/page/Meet-Loaf-of-Bread_
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.
The "Battle of the Bands" rages on! Rock on in #wc565 by Sunday July 28th!
Stay creative!
Zyik & The Colors Team
