FAQ

- How old are you?

I'm 19 years old.

- Where are you from?

I’m from Santiago, the capital city of Chile – which also is where I’m currently living.

- What are you studying? Are you studying anything art-related?

I'm currently studying Design at the PUC in Chile.

- Are you a self-taught artist?

I consider myself as such, yes. I had art class in school for a couple of years, just like everyone else, but then I left it. Most of what I know about art I have learned it on my own, through a trial-and-error method. Whenever I want to learn how to do something new in art I do a lot of research, watch tutorials, search for reference, advice and feedback, and try over and over again until I’m happy with the results. I have acquired my current skills in art with constant practice, hard work and my own initiative.

- When did you start drawing?

I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil, and I’ve been doing it my whole life ever since. Though I only started to take drawing and painting more seriously since 2010, and in 2011 I got my first tablet and got started with digital art.

- Where do you get inspiration from?

My inspiration can come from anywhere. Usually it has a mind of its own and hits me at the weirdest moments, like at 3 am when I’m trying to sleep.

But I also get inspiration from little things in my own life: playing and listening to music, reading my favorite fantasy books, looking at my favorite artists’ artwork, long and quiet walks in late afternoon, my own emotions and little moments with special meaning to me.

- Where do you get ideas for your designs?

Sometimes I'm lucky and the design just appears in mind; but usually it's a lot more than just drawing some random parts and putting them together:

I take the time to observe and study canon designs (in case I’m creating a fan character), thinking of an appropriate build and personality for the character, looking at a huge ton of references (I have dozens of folders with vehicle references, outfits, hairstyles, anatomy and more) and then comes the trial and error part: I sketch, sketch and sketch until I finally have a design that satisfies me.

- How long did it take you to develop your drawing style?

Years. My entire life since I started drawing. And it will keep developing as long as I keep drawing. It’s taken me my whole life to achieve what I can do now and I still have a long way to go. As long as I keep practicing constantly, improvement will keep coming.

- What are your tools?

For digital art I use a Wacom Bamboo Create Tablet, Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop CS5.

For traditional art, I use a broad variety of materials:

> 0.5MM and 0.7MM mechanical pencils with either regular lead or red, green, purple and blue colored lead
> Prismacolor and Tegraph graphite pencils
> PITT and Prismacolor Woodless graphite
> Kneaded eraser
> 0.5 and 0.7 MM ballpoint pens
> Staedtler colored pencils and color fineliners
> Pigment liners (0.1, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.7MM)
> Faber-Castell artist pens
> Ink brush markers
> Sennelier Indian ink and ink pen
> Cotman watercolors
> I ocassionally work with sanguine, sepia, charcoal and pastels (soft pastels and oil pastels), all of them Cretacolor.
> 75 or 80 g/m² regular printing paper, Canson Croquis sketchbooks (90 and 120 g/m²) and 300 g/m² Fabriano Watercolor Paper.

- Do you take requests?

No, I don’t. I might offer free rough sketches or do giveaways every now and then, but that happens in very rare occasions.

- Do you take commissions?

Yes, I take Paypal commissions. My commission status is always up to date on my profile so there you can see if they are closed or open. You can find more information and my commission prices here: marazure.deviantart.com/journa…

- What brushes do you use for digital art?

You can find my custom brush settings here: marazure.deviantart.com/galler…

- Do you have any tutorials?
I do, you can find them here: marazure.deviantart.com/galler…

- Do you prefer working digitally or traditionally?
I love both equally.

- How many original/fan characters do you have?

I only know I have over 200 characters, including those I share with PumpkinaChai. As for an exact number… I would have to count them one by one again, because I honestly lost count.

- Have you thought of making an original story to go with your characters?

I do have my own storylines indeed – for both my fan characters and original characters respectively. However, these stories are a work in progress, and thus incomplete yet. Some times I post fiction and occasionally comics about them.

- May I draw your characters?

Sure! I love gift art and I assure you that if you draw something for me you'll have me fangirling all over it. All I ask of you is to keep it appropriate and give me the proper credit. And please show me if you draw anything with my characters, I'd love to see!

- Can I use your drawings/characters for "x"? (Roleplaying, DeviantID, profile picture, Facebook, etc)

No, you can’t.

My art and characters are not resources for free use. My artwork is for my own personal use, with the exception of commissions which use is restricted only to the personal use of the commissioner.

All artwork in my gallery is under a Creative Commons License (NonCommercial-No Derivatives) and belongs exclusively to me – which means that roleplaying, reposting, tracying, copying, editing, false claim of characters and/or artwork, any kind of profit activities and any similar uses of the intellectual property in my gallery is strictly prohibited.

All my drawings are the result of my effort and hard work. Nobody has permission to use, copy, edit my art or repost it anywhere without my explicit permission. As selfish as it sounds, MY art is MINE and all rights are reserved to ME - including the right to prohibit its usage by others. My gallery is not a free art storage where anyone can take drawings and do what they please with them.

If you have any doubts about it, feel free to contact me via Note.

- Can I use your drawings for pose and/or design reference?

If you ever want to use my artwork and designs for reference – I would appreciate it greatly if you ask me first. I’m honored if my art inspires people and I would love to help them with references, but one must always draw a line:

Remember that referencing is not the same as tracing and/or copying parts of a design or a pose. Reference is called that way for a reason; tracing a pose is not "using it for reference”. Changing the colors or altering a picture isn't "using it for reference" either. Also, copying or tracing parts of a design isn't reference either. It's copying someone else's work and then calling it your own; plagiarism, if you prefer the legal term.

- Can I use your lineart/sketch works as templates/bases?

I’m sorry but no, you can’t -unless I specifically make a lineart or sketch for that purpose. My lineart and sketches are not free templates.

- Can I color a lineart I commissioned from you?

If I do a linework specifically for you, you can color it if you want! After all, you paid for the commission and those who commission me are allowed to use the commissioned picture for their personal use only, as long as I’m rightfully credited for my work. And please if you color a lineart commission I did for you show it to me, I'd love to see the final result!

- Can you help me with "x" drawing?

I'm always happy to help those who ask nicely. If you want advice, suggestions, red line corrections or art tips just send me a note and I'll see what I can do for you!

- Do you roleplay?

Yes, I do – but I prefer doing it privately with close friends only, with characters I know well. I’m really awkward and shy, so honestly I don’t feel comfortable roleplaying with people I don’t know well enough. Besides, my characters are a very personal matter to me so I need to have a very high level of trust with the person I roleplay with.

- Can we be friends?

Friendship has to be earned. If you want to be friends with me, the best thing to do is to approach slowly to me (I'm a shy and awkward person: I'm slow with relationships and anything social to be honest) and maybe we'll end up becoming good friends.

- What kind of music do you listen to?

A little bit of everything, depending on my mood and occasion.

I love 80’s classics, Disney songs, jazz, acoustic/instrumental, vocal/a capella songs and movie and game OST. Though I must say my favorite kind of music for all occassions and moods is Celtic music.

- How can I contact you?

If you want to contact me for anything (questions, information about requests and commissions, etc), the best you can do is sending me a Note here in DeviantART or send a message to my Tumblr

Email, Facebook, Skype, phone number and mailing address – for close friends only.