Colors Gallery, meet The_Adjudicator
@The_Adjudicator is known for their stunning photo-realistic paintings! Most of thier paintings are filled with such an astounding level of detail that you often have to look closely just to make sure that what you're looking at isn't a photo! However now isn't the time to judge them or their incredible works... now is the time to get to know them!
Who (or what) is The_Adjudicator? What's your origin story? When did you start drawing?
"My name is Steffin. I'm 30 years of age. I was raised up the middle child in humble circumstances wherein video games were like a surrogate third parent to my siblings and I. The name-tag I use, "The Adjudicator", was inspired by an achievement unlocked in an XBox360 game titled Halo Wars. The achievement being called "Adjudicate the Arbiter"."
You've been posting to the Colors Gallery since 2013! What's kept you coming back to our humble gallery for over a decade? How do you feel about the community and how it's changed over the years? Anything you would like to see implemented in the future or any other changes?
"It technically hasn't been a full decade yet. I started in November of 2013. I'd say I'm simply charmed by Colors3D. I do not know of any other source where I can apply cool 3D effects to my paintings. What originally drew me to the community was the scope of artists who could creatively use the effects made possible on the Nintendo 3DS."
"While most have moved on to more potent hardware for Colorslive, there are still a few other Colors3D users here. Though I do miss the old community I fell in love with over the near decade."
"If there was one feature I'd like to see implemented in the future, and this might be a bit of a stretch, it would be the inclusion of a digital on-screen slider that could shift the layers of a painting left and right to simulate depth of field, or 3D a environment within the painting."
Your paintings tend to be grand or large scale epic scenes with so much detail! What are your biggest inspirations(Monster Hunter seems to be one)? What motivates you?
"I love grand vistas and landscapes. Climbing up to high places, or anywhere that I can see the scope of land before me fills me with thrill. And sometimes I can get that simulated in a video game environment, which is a major source of inspiration for me. Often times, game development teams hire magnificent artists to render gorgeous sceneries, and I just love to soak in the scene. Monster Hunter, The Legend of Zelda, Ori and the Will of the Wisps are just a couple of my favorite games to play, sometimes just to admire the landscapes."
A warm welcome by The_Adjudicator
Do you use any other software or mediums? How does Colors suit you and your style? What's your process/go-to tools?
"I have on my PC, softwares like Krita and Photoshop which I can use to upscale and polish my Colors3D paintings, which admittedly are fairly low resolution, but I've gotten some impressive results from using the playback feature on Colors for Switch to upscale my 3DS paintings, then transferring the saved image over to my PC, and plugging my paintings into Photoshop, and just modifying the image size, then running them through the Camera Raw Filter to spruce them up, and clean out pixels with AI upscaling. It's a convoluted process, but it's easier than it sounds."
How did you discover the Colors community? What drew you to it?
I discovered Colors by chance. I was browsing the 3DS eshop, and happened across Colors!3D under the apps section, and decided to try my hand at digital painting. Free access to the online community after purchase just felt like a bonus.
What Colors artworks are you the most proud of?
What Colors artworks am I most proud of? That is a HARD question. I have such fond memories of everything I learned throughout the whole journey, it's difficult to choose. But, I suppose if I were to pick my top five, I'd choose these:
5. Shifting Sands, Rolling thunder
4. Guard-point
3. Mouldwood Depths
2. Swallowtail Butterfly
1. A warm welcome
A few honorable mentions:
Piano on the lake
365 Days later
Miidiocre artist
A shine upon Inkwater Marsh
Top 3 Favorite Colors artworks and who are your favorite Colors artist??
I interpret your next question as open to include other artists. For that, I'll include the following question as well, as they include the artists who inspired me the most:
When you play your notes wrong by @Acchan
Something about this piece captured my imagination many years ago, and was among the first steps in building a fond and lasting friendship with @Acchan. Though in all honesty, @Acchan credited another artist for this piece.
Beyond by @TECHNO-BITS
This piece was one of the first paintings I discovered the first day I created my Colorslive account, and it opened my mind to a whole new world of possibilities.
I Just Keep Breathing by @Kjumper
This piece is remarkably colorful with gorgeous scenery, and yet captures a deep, heart-breaking emotion at the very center.
"These three artists, among many others, gave me the edge I needed to see the potential I had within me."
You take a lot of request from others in the Colors community! You also created the #PassThePresent tag which was really fun to see during the holidays. What makes you so generous?
"I grew up in a loving and caring environment. One of my earliest memories is of a time when my brother's and I discovered that we can fry ants with a magnifying glass. However, when my mother learned what we were doing, she kindly taught us to show respect to the ants for all the hard work they do. I also grew up close knitted with friends who helped me through my hardest days. Furthermore, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and when I served a Mission for my church, I learned how to find joy in serving others. When I put a smile on other people's faces, it puts one on my own face as well."
Special delivery by The_Adjudicator
Any advice you want to give to up-and-coming artist or general advice in general?
"If there were any advice I'd share to up-and-coming artists, it is this: Never give up on yourself just because you're not as great as you would like to be right now. Find those that inspire you most, and strive to emulate their best qualities. It will take time, but with enough perseverance, you can climb even the tallest mountains."
Do you ever get art block? How do you "block" yourself from getting it?
"Yes, I do get art block. Quite often actually. The key is to pace yourself. Take a little time to do something else for a bit. Plan how you're going to tackle your next project, and schedule one or two hours per day tackling that plan in bite sized pieces. If you need to start over for one reason or another, don't be discouraged, save your progress, and start a new attempt trying something different, like a new pose, or perspective. You may find yourself reinvigorated by simply changing a few little details."
Do you have any goals or plans for the future?
"I have plans to start up a YouTube channel with a variety of focuses ranging from let's plays, to live stream community chat art projects. However, those plans have been put on hold, as my PC for some reason crashes anytime I try to use any web browser for an extended period of time, usually less than half an hour. I have had no success diagnosing the problem as of yet."
Talent or hardwork? Does an artist need mostly technical skill or is being more intuitive/go-with the-flow needed too? What's your opinion on why some artist grow quickly and why others may stagnate or not grow as rapidly?
"Natural talent can go a long way in helping someone to "hit the ground running" when they get started. But hard work is applicable to anyone with or without that headstart. There's a statement I heard once that goes like this: "you can do anything you want, if you want to do it bad enough". In other words, if you really desire to be an artist, the only thing stopping you from that, is your own will to try."
Discord question from @Lily: what lead you to choosing Colors to draw?
"I was led to Colors while browsing the 3DS eshop, where under the apps section, I found one called Colors3D. I've always enjoyed drawing with pencils or painting with brushes, so when I discovered I could use my Nintendo 3DS as a portable digital art device, I had to jump on that opportunity."
Discord question from @jikkermanccini: I heard that you do sculpture and 3D art, what inspired you to start? What's your favorite 3D subject?
"Ever since my youth, I loved to play with play-dough. There came a point when I was introduced to clay as an alternative that doesn't dry up if left out, and I loved playing with that. I would roll it around, put pieces together, and would try to make character using it. It was around the summer of 2017 when I decided to try my hand at professional clay sculpting, so I bought a bigger batch of the stuff, and some clay working tools, then started watching some YouTube videos of pros sculpting with clay to learn from them that way."
"As far as my favorite 3D subject goes, when using Colors3D, I have up to 5 layers to work with, and when you turn up the system's 3D slider, it graphically separates the layers using the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D features. I've found that to be fascinating, and I still enjoy using this feature today nearly a decade later."
Discord question from @ChimaeraArts: Whats the most difficult color to work and use it, for me its the color yellow and I shade it right with a tint of orange or red.
"I'd say the most difficult color for me to work with is purple. Much like yellow, it occupies a small amount of space on the color wheel, and shading it requires finding a fine level of blue for the darks, or violet/indigo for the lights. Purple objects tend to appear either pink or blue if you lean just a little in either direction."
Anyone you want to shout-out? Do you have any ending statements?
"Lastly, there are a number of Artists I'd love to give a shout-out to, most of whom have gone inactive from the community for a long time, such as @Kjumper or @BloodDragon."
"However, one young up-and-coming artist who has done great things for the community that I'd like to give a shout-out to is @Marlee9910. I wish I was as good as this artist is when I was that age. I consistently see Marlee leaving compliments on various paintings throughout the Gallery."
Carpenter Bee by Marlee9910
"And as for final remarks, I realize this is super long, so I appreciate you taking the time to read through my answers to your questions. I had a lot of fun reflecting on my experiences with Colors these last few hours answering your questions, and strolling through memory lane. This is a wonderful community, and I hope Colorslive continues to collect smiles for years to come."
"Thank you for this experience. And as to you, always find reason to make every day, a good day. So have a good day, every day."
That wraps up our interview with @The_Adjudicator ! We at The Colors Team would like to thank you for taking time to answer our many questions! Everyone check them out and judge their awesome artwork for yourselves!
You can check out the interview with our previous artist of the week @comet_ser
http://colorslive.com/page/Meet-comet_ser
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.
Want to head to the beach but you're afraid of how you might look in a swimsuit? Well don't be because no one will judge you! Join #wc513 "The beach episode" and have a good time! The deadline is Sunday July 30th, 2023!
Stay creative!
Zyik & The Colors Team
