deviantART Birthday!

How long have you been on DeviantArt?

Five years. I made my first protagonist fourteen because I was thirteen then and I knew that with my birthday coming up at the time he would be the same age as me for most of the story that way. Hah... It took me three and a half years to finish Room 181. What utter bollocks that idea was.

What does your username mean?

Primarily it's a play on the classic phrase 'man in crowd (number) three' to describe nondescript figures that no-one cares about in movies and such, which I realised gets used so many times that Man-in-crowd-3 is actually somewhat famous. No-one cares about the fourth man stood next to him. 

However, it also reflected that one of the things I wanted from dA when I joined - anonymity. I used to be terrified of presenting anything in public because I thought it would always be instantly ridiculed, so I liked being online where no-one knew me and if it was as bad as I thought it was then I could disappear without it being attached to me in real life. Except that then people came back and said 'Hey, I really like this', and the rest is kind of history.

Describe yourself in three words.

...with relentless optimism. Whatever I'm doing, that's generally the style in which I do it.

Are you left or right handed?

Right.

What was your first deviation?

Can I please pretend it was Room 181? No? ...It was a cosmically awful one-off about a boy realising that his class' new student is actually a gargoyle, and only he can see that he is. There was no development on this idea, of course. Nothing happened with it at all. It got me started. Every artist is entitled to an utterly abysmal debut that they're then allowed to forget about.

What is your favourite type of art to create?

Literature. I love writing. I love hanging out with my characters, and I love the creative use of words (why go for a simple descriptive analogy when you can have a developed and far more amusing one?). It takes ages to get good at it, yeah, but that's the case with anything. Stick at it, and read a lot of the style you're writing so that you absorb their style into your own. It's great fun when you get into the swing of it.

If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?

Digital art. I wish I could draw, or at least draw it the way I see it in my head. I am actually trying to learn how to draw and doing a handful of art pieces right now, since I've got some ideas for them; but I wish I could get it the way I can see it in my mind. Then again, I imagine a lot of highly experienced artists are saying exactly the same thing.

What was your first favourite?

Oh gosh... I didn't fave anything for ages because I was scared of being judged for my fave choices (see question 2), but eventually I either bucked it or said 'Well, this one won't be so bad' and faved this: fav.me/d4rhak3 It was just the cleverness of it, I think.

What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?

Funny art. Specifically comic strips. Sometimes I see something awesomely artistic and go 'YES, that' and fave it though, just occasionally.

Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?

Don't force me to choose! Ugh... Nope, I can't choose my favourite deviant as a person because dude, you don't choose out of your friends like that, and I can't choose my favourite deviant for their art because every time I think I've got it I remember someone else and go 'Ooh, no, wait, this one' and never get an answer.

If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?

Um... Again, this is so, so hard... Either Rabbit-In-A-Bottle and Nivryz together so I can give them both a great big hug and tell that it's ok, they are awesome people and no-one can tell them different, or Jaeger15 because he's been a big deal in my dA life. If only there was some sort of convenient question that allowed me to follow-up on how he's been so important.

How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?

My word, that was well-timed. Jaeger15 has been a big deal for me because he, alongside Jsekela77, were the first ones who read my work, took it seriously and told me that it was in any way good, when I didn't really believe at all that it was. They were instrumental in me coming out of my shell and having the bravery to start putting my work out there, having confidence in myself and not being afraid to receive criticism. And then everyone else continued that work. Thank you, everyone. You have no idea how much difference you all made to me.

What are your preferred tools to create art?

The deep and cavernous depths of my imagination, as transmitted through Microsoft Word and the notes function on my iPod, or Photoshop and a Wacom drawing tablet if the case proves necessary.

What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?

I don't really get inspired in locations as such. I just get hit with random ideas and take note of them. I guess it would be either my own dreams (I got the plan for an entire future series off of one very surreal dream I once had. The protagonist is a rat with a battleaxe), the dA Pokeumans group or Fightabase.com, which has taught me a lot about writing snappy, witty dialogue (why do you think the Fighting Talk project came into existence?).

What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?

Going on the Pokeumans Skype chat and, with no other way to describe it, being mobbed by ecstatic fans I didn't even know existed was quite an experience, but there were three moments that made me so thrown I physically recoiled from my computer in delighted shock: my first actual comment, being offered adminship of Pokeumans (when I saw it I was genuinely so shocked that I just closed my laptop, walked away and came back about five hours later once I could deal with it mentally), and when I finished off a collab that sonyathehedgragon and I had started together and posted it, and Sonya came back to dA having left the site to comment on the post.

...Actually, I... I know a lot of people won't support me in this, but ever since Jaeger15 told me about all the stuff he was dealing with at the time in his personal life I prayed for him on a practically daily basis. Seeing him post a journal saying that he had come to own his personal faith and was trusting in Jesus for himself did me just as much good as it did him, without a doubt. I know that a lot of people won't support me when I say that, but it doesn't change it. That was a very significant dA memory for me too.

There you go, that's my answers. Here's to another, even better 15 years of dA - and beyond!