Dave2112
Level of Cherry Feather
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2001
- Messages
- 10,294
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Greetings one and all. A few years ago, I started a regular forum feature in which I interviewed various community members in an attempt to let us all know one another a little better. For quite some time now, plans have been in the works to bring this feature back...it's taken a little while between setting things up and getting together with people. In the meantime, my little feature has been "homaged" (borrowed, repeated, whatever) before everything came together to restart what I've been doing for several years.
So, with the timing finally coming together, TQWD is back in its original form! And, each of these will be saved in a section in my Featured Author Archive for prosperity and historical record.
We're gonna kick things off with one of our most beloved artists and members, the creator of one of our most memorable characters, an intelligent and funny dude and a good friend. I hope you enjoy these ten questions with Fmilling!
************************************
1) As one of the better-known artists in the tickling community, you've created a much-loved character, the alien chick Teeva. What can you tell us about her and how she came to be?
Well thanks for asking Dave!
Well Teeva as you already know is an alien princess from the distant tropical planet of Podaria. Not only is she just a Princess, but a very smart one as well, often times inventing machinery and off beat devices to kill time. Her main ambition is to take over a planet to impress her dad, the royal king of Podaria and have tons of fun at the same time. It doesn't take much to guess which planet this alien wants... you guessed it... Earth.
How does she intent to do this? What methods could she possibly unleash to have earth on it's primitive human knees? War? Horrific technological haos the likes of which no human has ever seen? No...
Through tickling of course!
Through the proper research of various techniques, organisms and various tickle devices that she designs herself, she slowly but surely reaches her grand goal. However the journey isn't exactly a walk in the park. In her hurry to reach earth, she had forgotten to bring living (and ticklish) organisms with her to test these findings on! Throughout her adventures she's either forced to beam down to earth to capture abductees for research, which humorously backfire getting her into ticklish situations or she is force to be alien guinea pig subjecting herself to her own insidious tickle devices.
Well that's her backstory.
Teeva is the result of many nights of brainstorming in late 2006... I've noticed many tickle OC were either human or furry, so to be different. I wanted an alien OC because to my knowledge, no one else had done it before. Another reason was that alien abductions interested me a lot. Aliens can practically do what ever they wanted to do to you once you're abducted. Tickling is more than likely on the abduction menu, so why not have a sexy alien chick do the cooking? Hence Teeva was born...
2) Several artists in the TK world have recurring characters...you with Teeva, myself with Sara, Bandito with the Bounce Chix, etc. What would you say are some of the benefits and drawbacks to having recurring characters form the basis of your artwork?
To me the benefits of having a recurring character is that you have something familiar to always work with and can provide character development at anytime you want. In my opinion, it's always enjoyable to see how an artist continues to add more value to their character making it more enjoyable over time.
A drawback to this is that a recurring character may become stuck within a certain frame that may not easily changed due to how the artistic envisions his or her creation, or what the fans of the artist expect in the character.
3) Here's a question for the art-geeks! Your work is rather unique in its presentation and color schemes. It almost seems to glow at times. How do you create these amazing pieces, what's the procedure you use?
"Yay" for art geeks!
Warning: most of the stuff below refers to Photoshop, because that's what I use and have been using since high school...
Well, the journey begins with a pencil drawing on white 8.5 x 11 printing paper, followed by inking and then scanning right into Photoshop from which everything is colored including the inked lines to give the pics a sort of exaggerated realism and softness. I kind of like to be super detailed in my pics so most of the time they have an outrageous number of layers. It may not look like much is going on, but most of the time there are more than 110 individually colored, shaped, or textured layers in my pics and the best thing is, that's the norm!
The glow is the result of large amounts of trial and error sessions with myself using the layer style effects of Photoshop and just going crap happy with the dodge and burn tools
It's long and painstaking sometimes, and I'm taking the necessary steps to get faster... but the end result, consisting of the positive comments and support from members off the community is ALWAYS worth it.
4) One more art-related question before moving on. Since your style is so unique, have you had any specific influences that have guided your work?
Yes indeed!
The initial style that I use now and which also inspired to try my hand in artwork in the first place came from the great Dave Alvarez... You all know how mesmerizing his artwork is and I was completely entranced. I had to try it out for myself. The Bandito is a huge inspiration too. The curvaceous style of his work and Dave's go hand in hand on the way I draw body types, especially Teeva's.
Next, "Tomato Dragon" aka "Pawfeather", is totally my inspiration for facial expressions. TD does them so well and I always remind him of this, for which he always humbly replies, with a simple "thanks bud". I tend to study his work to get a feel for what I should do for future pics. I totally am a fan of facially expression. You can portray a Lee in a tickle pic, being tickled in every nook and cranny on their body, but if the facial expression is "unsatisfactory" then in my opinion the whole thing is "unsatisfactory"...
For the color, I first learned from tkylfynd on Deviant art. His use of lighting and shadows had introduced me to the "dodge and burn" tool in photoshop, giving my early work a whole new direction in style.
But no color influence is greater than that of the White Lotus. I'm totally a huge fan of the White Lotus. I consider her to be my unofficial coloring teacher; my Sensei of color.
For every piece of color work that she has done for the Bandito; free or not, I've studyied everything she does and gave it a try in my own work. She's totally super talented and if I ever met her in real life, I'd totally bow at her feet...no offense to Bandito of course... heh heh.
I thank all of these artists, for giving me key inspiration for what I do.
5) You use the name "fmilling", but are known to many of your friends as "Bombers". I'm sure people are dying to know how this came about. Care to tell us?
Sure!
I am the bombers because it was a nickname given to me by the Bandito himself! Years ago on DA. The Bandito had first called me the "F-Bomb" as a nickname that he promised he would make for me...
Somehow "F-bomb" had matriculated into "Bombers" as time went by, but the name had stuck... That is why I am the Bombers!
6) Tell us about some of your non-fetish interests, the things Bombers does in his free time.
In my free time I play Video Games! I love all systems. I'm particularly a fan of first and third person shooters, fighting games, and action adventure.
I love to watch the discovery and travel channels on TV. Both channels have shows that remind me that there's just so much more to see in the world instead of just the plain old walls of your house or on your college campus.
Of course I do regular non-fetish drawings for my friends at school... It keeps me in practice...
7) If you could have one superhuman ability, what would it be?
Super speed. That way, I'll be able to dodge bullets matrix-style and make a clean getaway when I rob a bank... Just kidding...but super speed would be extra cool!
8) What was the last book you read or movie you saw that really moved you in some way?
Hmm... tough one...
I guess the last movie that really moved was "Phantom of the Opera (2004)" Even though I not a tortured sole expressing his art and love from a painful shroud in the shadows, there's just something about a tortured sole expressing his art and love from a painful shroud in the shadows that really hits me in the brainwaves artistically...
9) Ok, two-part question. You've won several million dollars in a state lottery. What is the one "cause" you'd donate a large amount to? And...what is the one "blowing money on something selfish and stupid" thing you'd buy?
Ha! Honestly I'd give "A" large amount to Dave Alvarez so he can stop complaining and get that Yenny series up and going once and for all!
As for something selfish and stupid, I'd buy a yearly crapload of chocolate...Why because chocolate is GOOD!
Wanna fight about it? I didn't think so...
10) And finally, the Patented Original Glow-in-the-Dark Often Copied Never Equalled Question Ten! If you could have any three people from history, living or dead, over for dinner and conversation...who would they be and why?
Max Fleischer: Who wouldn't want to talk to a huge pioneer of animated cartoons?
Charles Alderton: Inventor of Dr. Pepper...anyone who is the inventior of something so delicious must be good to have a little chat with...
Robert Rodriguez: director of Planet terror, the El Mariachi series, and other cool films, a discussion of his brilliance must be heard at the dinner table!
And that's about it!
********************************
My thanks to Bombers for taking the time to let us know the inner workings of his alien mind for a bit!
So, with the timing finally coming together, TQWD is back in its original form! And, each of these will be saved in a section in my Featured Author Archive for prosperity and historical record.
We're gonna kick things off with one of our most beloved artists and members, the creator of one of our most memorable characters, an intelligent and funny dude and a good friend. I hope you enjoy these ten questions with Fmilling!
************************************
1) As one of the better-known artists in the tickling community, you've created a much-loved character, the alien chick Teeva. What can you tell us about her and how she came to be?
Well thanks for asking Dave!
Well Teeva as you already know is an alien princess from the distant tropical planet of Podaria. Not only is she just a Princess, but a very smart one as well, often times inventing machinery and off beat devices to kill time. Her main ambition is to take over a planet to impress her dad, the royal king of Podaria and have tons of fun at the same time. It doesn't take much to guess which planet this alien wants... you guessed it... Earth.
How does she intent to do this? What methods could she possibly unleash to have earth on it's primitive human knees? War? Horrific technological haos the likes of which no human has ever seen? No...
Through tickling of course!
Through the proper research of various techniques, organisms and various tickle devices that she designs herself, she slowly but surely reaches her grand goal. However the journey isn't exactly a walk in the park. In her hurry to reach earth, she had forgotten to bring living (and ticklish) organisms with her to test these findings on! Throughout her adventures she's either forced to beam down to earth to capture abductees for research, which humorously backfire getting her into ticklish situations or she is force to be alien guinea pig subjecting herself to her own insidious tickle devices.
Well that's her backstory.
Teeva is the result of many nights of brainstorming in late 2006... I've noticed many tickle OC were either human or furry, so to be different. I wanted an alien OC because to my knowledge, no one else had done it before. Another reason was that alien abductions interested me a lot. Aliens can practically do what ever they wanted to do to you once you're abducted. Tickling is more than likely on the abduction menu, so why not have a sexy alien chick do the cooking? Hence Teeva was born...
2) Several artists in the TK world have recurring characters...you with Teeva, myself with Sara, Bandito with the Bounce Chix, etc. What would you say are some of the benefits and drawbacks to having recurring characters form the basis of your artwork?
To me the benefits of having a recurring character is that you have something familiar to always work with and can provide character development at anytime you want. In my opinion, it's always enjoyable to see how an artist continues to add more value to their character making it more enjoyable over time.
A drawback to this is that a recurring character may become stuck within a certain frame that may not easily changed due to how the artistic envisions his or her creation, or what the fans of the artist expect in the character.
3) Here's a question for the art-geeks! Your work is rather unique in its presentation and color schemes. It almost seems to glow at times. How do you create these amazing pieces, what's the procedure you use?
"Yay" for art geeks!
Warning: most of the stuff below refers to Photoshop, because that's what I use and have been using since high school...
Well, the journey begins with a pencil drawing on white 8.5 x 11 printing paper, followed by inking and then scanning right into Photoshop from which everything is colored including the inked lines to give the pics a sort of exaggerated realism and softness. I kind of like to be super detailed in my pics so most of the time they have an outrageous number of layers. It may not look like much is going on, but most of the time there are more than 110 individually colored, shaped, or textured layers in my pics and the best thing is, that's the norm!
The glow is the result of large amounts of trial and error sessions with myself using the layer style effects of Photoshop and just going crap happy with the dodge and burn tools
It's long and painstaking sometimes, and I'm taking the necessary steps to get faster... but the end result, consisting of the positive comments and support from members off the community is ALWAYS worth it.
4) One more art-related question before moving on. Since your style is so unique, have you had any specific influences that have guided your work?
Yes indeed!
The initial style that I use now and which also inspired to try my hand in artwork in the first place came from the great Dave Alvarez... You all know how mesmerizing his artwork is and I was completely entranced. I had to try it out for myself. The Bandito is a huge inspiration too. The curvaceous style of his work and Dave's go hand in hand on the way I draw body types, especially Teeva's.
Next, "Tomato Dragon" aka "Pawfeather", is totally my inspiration for facial expressions. TD does them so well and I always remind him of this, for which he always humbly replies, with a simple "thanks bud". I tend to study his work to get a feel for what I should do for future pics. I totally am a fan of facially expression. You can portray a Lee in a tickle pic, being tickled in every nook and cranny on their body, but if the facial expression is "unsatisfactory" then in my opinion the whole thing is "unsatisfactory"...
For the color, I first learned from tkylfynd on Deviant art. His use of lighting and shadows had introduced me to the "dodge and burn" tool in photoshop, giving my early work a whole new direction in style.
But no color influence is greater than that of the White Lotus. I'm totally a huge fan of the White Lotus. I consider her to be my unofficial coloring teacher; my Sensei of color.
For every piece of color work that she has done for the Bandito; free or not, I've studyied everything she does and gave it a try in my own work. She's totally super talented and if I ever met her in real life, I'd totally bow at her feet...no offense to Bandito of course... heh heh.
I thank all of these artists, for giving me key inspiration for what I do.
5) You use the name "fmilling", but are known to many of your friends as "Bombers". I'm sure people are dying to know how this came about. Care to tell us?
Sure!
I am the bombers because it was a nickname given to me by the Bandito himself! Years ago on DA. The Bandito had first called me the "F-Bomb" as a nickname that he promised he would make for me...
Somehow "F-bomb" had matriculated into "Bombers" as time went by, but the name had stuck... That is why I am the Bombers!
6) Tell us about some of your non-fetish interests, the things Bombers does in his free time.
In my free time I play Video Games! I love all systems. I'm particularly a fan of first and third person shooters, fighting games, and action adventure.
I love to watch the discovery and travel channels on TV. Both channels have shows that remind me that there's just so much more to see in the world instead of just the plain old walls of your house or on your college campus.
Of course I do regular non-fetish drawings for my friends at school... It keeps me in practice...
7) If you could have one superhuman ability, what would it be?
Super speed. That way, I'll be able to dodge bullets matrix-style and make a clean getaway when I rob a bank... Just kidding...but super speed would be extra cool!
8) What was the last book you read or movie you saw that really moved you in some way?
Hmm... tough one...
I guess the last movie that really moved was "Phantom of the Opera (2004)" Even though I not a tortured sole expressing his art and love from a painful shroud in the shadows, there's just something about a tortured sole expressing his art and love from a painful shroud in the shadows that really hits me in the brainwaves artistically...
9) Ok, two-part question. You've won several million dollars in a state lottery. What is the one "cause" you'd donate a large amount to? And...what is the one "blowing money on something selfish and stupid" thing you'd buy?
Ha! Honestly I'd give "A" large amount to Dave Alvarez so he can stop complaining and get that Yenny series up and going once and for all!
As for something selfish and stupid, I'd buy a yearly crapload of chocolate...Why because chocolate is GOOD!
Wanna fight about it? I didn't think so...
10) And finally, the Patented Original Glow-in-the-Dark Often Copied Never Equalled Question Ten! If you could have any three people from history, living or dead, over for dinner and conversation...who would they be and why?
Max Fleischer: Who wouldn't want to talk to a huge pioneer of animated cartoons?
Charles Alderton: Inventor of Dr. Pepper...anyone who is the inventior of something so delicious must be good to have a little chat with...
Robert Rodriguez: director of Planet terror, the El Mariachi series, and other cool films, a discussion of his brilliance must be heard at the dinner table!
And that's about it!
********************************
My thanks to Bombers for taking the time to let us know the inner workings of his alien mind for a bit!
