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Interview with Endling

8/25/2012

Welcome to ASKtheARTIST. My name is *thefluffyshrimp and today I have the great privilege to interview `Endling, an incredibly talented comic artist and creator of many of your favorite series on deviantART.

Thank you for presenting us with this opportunity to interview you, Endling.

Hey all you folks there in AtAChat! Go ahead and start posting questions now.

Thanks for having me Fluff!

I warn everyone I'm on my second triple espresso coffee of the day. If my answers are incoherent and/or jittery you'll know why. I'M WIRED TO GO.

Excellent! Hahaha.

*RedVenture asks "How did you get started doing art, Endling?"

When I was little, my dad would bring home paper from his job. He worked with computers and stuff and often had tons of it lying around, so I'd make use of it and draw. (With his permission. Occasionally.) After a while he noticed I had a habit of doing this. Usually robot caterpillars. I'm not kidding either. I should scan in an example sometime and show it here on dA or something.

Anyway, after noticing he drew me a picture of a fisherman on a boat with a sea serpent staring at him. Simple little thing.

And I was like. HOLY COW. My dad is the best artist in the universe I have to be better than him. And to this day we've fought that eternal struggle.

~zerelin asks "How long does it typically take you to complete a comic page?"

That actually depends on the page. Perspective shots and interiors are absolute murder sometimes. They take forever to get right. More often than not you spend about 10% of the time actually drawing what's going on, and the rest of the 90% FIXING every last little thing. I would say that I could do about two lined pages in a day if I was going full force, but if I'm grayscaling.. and really trying to make it look nice.. ehhh. One. Haha. I'm terrible! I haven't drawn a comic in ages so I'm really, really rusty.

(Coffee helps.)

~DeviousTapper asks "How to you plan to continue Everafter?"

WELP. Hunker down, long answer incoming.

I was waiting to see when that question was going to come up, haha.. all right. You know, I've been avoiding answering that for.. well. A loooong long whiles now. After I decided to stop progress on Everafter, I never wanted to get too many peoples hopes up by acting as if it was all ready to go again, much as people wanted to see it. I had the story in mind, back then, but the main problem was, I kind of launched into it a little too quickly, on a schedule I couldn't keep up with over time, etc, etc. Oh hell, I could go on for miles about why it ended, but you asked if I'd continue it, and I veered off didn't I. Haha.

(Still answering btw. It's coming, IT'S COMING.)

YES, I absolutely positively want to continue Everafter, but not as it stands right now. I kind of want to get back to what it was intended to be, and not what I just kind of.. tossed up simply because I was on a rushed timetable to keep on making pages while holding down my job. I really love the story, and the characters, and as much as I didn't want to just up and leave it behind, I didn't want to pick it up again unless I knew I could do it justice and tell the story how I really wanted to.

Long story short, I'm going to be rebooting it. I've been in the process of a very, very long rewrite ever since it shut down, and I can safely say, lately. I'm really happy with what's been going on. And I'm very much looking forward to drawing those characters again. Hopefully sooner than alter. :]

..later.

I almost made it through that entire answer without a typo.

~JesterCapp asks "How do you feel your goals as a professional artist have changed over the past couple years? What's a challenge you want to tackle in the future?"

I've veered away from comic art and more into the game industry. Truth be told it was always a dream of mine, whereas comics were a fun hobby. I got a job working for Spidermonk Entertainment in 2007 and was at the studio for about three years, and since then moved on to work with two other studios, the one I'm with right now is actually in Barcelona. We're making an MMO. :] My goals though, to be honest, they haven't changed. I still want to make a graphic novel, I still want an artbook (or 2, or 3, or 8), and I still want to do stupid little comics like that Teef one with Ree from a while back on a regular basis. That's my real ultimate aim, but don't get me wrong, I love working on video games, since any time I'm NOT drawing I'm pretty much gaming away.

(Hence the coffee. Guess who was up till the wee hours last night playing Guild Wars 2.)

Long answer.

~Mekazawa asks "Have you ever wanted to see any of your stories animated?"

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.

You know though? Only 2D. Hand drawn man, HAND DRAWN. With the scribbly bits STILL VISIBLE!

Nothing against 3D but in my book nothing, nothing tops hand drawn animation.

(Just kidding about the long answer that's all I got. Just a lot of very emphatic "e"s.)

~Erac asks "Did you ever have a formal education in art? (like going to an art school after high school?)"

Yeah, I went to two different art colleges, one for Fine Arts and the other for Digital Illustration, following a very brief stint as an Animation major.

Tip for future fine artists of the non-digital variety in here. Paying for paint hurts.

~Artogis asks "Which comic artists inspire you the most?"

Hiroaki Samura about sums it up in my book. Though I can't claim we have a similar style. The man is a genius with traditional medium. It's just inspiration though, not necessarily a desire to have a similar style, I guess. He's the author of Blade of the Immortal, a comic very, very well worth your time to read, if you didn't know.

~kitty15553 asks "What process did you go through when creating your characters (like Ree and such)?"

There's no real hard set process. Just a looot, a lot, a lot of mistakes, until you get something that just makes you go.. yeah, that's what they're supposed to look like. Kind of like you already had a picture of them in your head but you just couldn't see it clearly. And hell, even when you get something you like you keep on editing and editing over time, haha. Refining. And you don't w ant to get too lost in that process. DON'T BE LIKE ME. Don't sit around editing your characters into the ground! Tell their story I say, TELL IT. A character needs a story and that story needs telling before people'll really get to see what you had in mind.

*Miropepo asks "If you didn't have to work for a living (having free time) what do/would want to work on or do?"

Comic backlog. Ree, Everafter, the Hollow short story series I've been working on recently, and Living in Sin. Not necessarily in that order. But yeah, no doubts, no hesitation.. haha. I would want to get started on all of those right off the bat. I'd really like to get something published. Got about five years of rust piled all over the comic side of my brain to start chipping away at. :]

Game industry's been fun but I feel like my heart's back there.

~MindlessCreator asks "When did it hit you that you've became rather famous on DA and how did you react for it?"

I was grateful. It's nice to wake up in the morning and see a slew of people telling you they can't wait for the next thing you're going to draw. It gives what was already a fun hobby a really passionate purpose. Truth be told though, nothing really.. changed in my day to day life. People see the big numbers and they assume a lot about.. I dunno. Lifestyles and book signings or things like that, but really you just keep on posting up art and hoping people like it, day to day. Haha. And you feel lucky every day they do.

Page hits do not an artist make! But people who really give a damn do. And I love that anybody gives a damn.

~rankirubai asks "What made you decide to publish some of your art portfolio on this site?"

Oh my. You've seen that? Ahaha. Well! I don't really have a dedicated art site or anything, and dA was offering the service so I thought, hey why not. Could use it. It's always a good idea to keep an updated portfolio handy. You never know when like, a job is going to be open for what, a DAY. And you need to throw together a super fast resume and toss your portfolio their way. Especially if you're a freelancer. My goodness though, I haven't updated that thing in a while.. oh! Quick tip about portfolios.

COMPLETELY unrelated but something that I don't hear many people telling others.

When you do send a portfolio to a studio.. and you don't hear back from them?

Send another portfolio, an updated one, maybe.. 2-3 months later. Or so. I think that's the recommended about of time. It's a little trick I've seen at work. Sometimes, companies want to know how fast you can improve in a short amount of time, if you're not compleeetely up to snuff the first time at the gate.

Also it's a good thing to keep on going. Keeps you improving, which is always a good thing. :]

~DFX4509B asks "What do you draw for fun?"

Lately? Monsters and robots. They're about the easiest kind of stress relief/practice subject matter I can tackle without ever worrying too much about what the end result is going to be. You can get away with really wild and nonsensical shapes, instead of WORKING YOUR FINGERS TO THE BONE trying to make the human elbow look juuuuust right. A whole lot of big scribbly messes. It can be a lot of fun. Especially when you manage to pull a real fun idea out of it. Had it happen enough times where a simple series of warm-ups turned into something much bigger, and that's always a nice feeling.

Also my goodness, look at that list on the right. You guys are fantastic, haha.. awesome seeing so many folks here at once.

(You should know in between questions I'm sneaking around in your galleries bit by bit.)

~rankirubai asks "You have three major stories you've developed over the years: Ever After, Living in Sin, and Ree. Two out of those three have female protagonists. Any particular reason for that?"

When I was growing up, I was very much into comics. Spiderman in particular, was my favorite superhero. (Still is.) Anyway, I got used to male protagonists. A lot of them. In the books I read, "comics" I made and movies, both animated and otherwise, I saw. And there wasn't a problem with this or anything, but.. after a while I kind of began to wonder why there were not too many female leads in these things. And then when there WAS a female lead.. errrr.. you can say it left something to be desired. All too often I came across you know.. the infamous 'chainmail bikini' type lead, with lips the size of a compressed buick and.. other attributes that followed suit.

Or twinkly pixie types a la Sailor Moon and that ilk.

So!

~rankirubai asks "In what ways has Mikiko helped your art and creativity improve? What kind of insights on art, character design, storytelling, etc has she given you?

..who is Mikiko?

I KID. I KIIID.

Wow, that's one hell of a question. One full of pitfalls, left and right. Big mushy pitfalls.

Without sounding too much like I'm trying to score some serious points with the missus here. I can safely say Miki has kept me art-ing when I might have just decided to up and become a long shoreman in frustration. She's kept me inspired, sane, and INCREDIBLY well fed oh my god she's the most fantastic cook you would not believe. She has work ethic in spades, work ethic I could use.

She can tell a story, she can draw a multitude of character types, she can make videos, narrate interviews, appear on television without looking like some kind of horrendous pale swamp monster like myself.

She can do it all, and I envy every last bit of those qualities. She's helped me become a better artist every single day, and she has a left hook like a heavyweight champion for when I'm getting all mopey about art.

That's all I got. She's perfect and I am incredibly lucky to have her in my life and oh my god DERAILED QUESTION BWAHAHAH.

=TheMagpieGrimoire asks "Who were your main inspirations when learning how to write stories and create characters?"

Ahem.

Hey Magpiiiiiiie.. you brilliant artist you.

There's a gallery worth checking out, right there, Magpie's. That talented when you're that young. Ugh. It makes me sick. But in an entirely good and flattering way. Anyway.

If I could sum up my entire inspiration for story, character, humor and all that stuff, it'd be smack dab in between Terry Pratchett and Mystery Science Theater 3000. If I was stuck on a deserted island with a mysteriously working television set, I would want the collected works of those two brilliant franchises with me. I've never seen such amazing wit and scathing cleverness in both.

I'm not saying in any way the stuff I do is on these guys level, but my goodness I can only hope it will be eventually.

(Write it down! Pick up a Terry Pratchett book! Small Gods or Wyrd Sisters! Maybe Reaper Man.. or Hogfather! )

You will come out of it feeling inspired!

~zadokahn asks "Any tips on developing my own style?"

Draw every day. Try drawing other peoples work sometime. More often than not what sets your work apart from theirs is a summary of your own style. But don't.. wedge yourself into the notion of 'style' either, I don't think it's particularly healthy to just flat out say WELL I do chins a mile long that's just what I do so I'm gonna keep on doing it so it'll be my thing. Well. Unless you want that to be your thing. It really depends on your own perspective. Do you want people to know you for one thing or another? Do more of it I guess. Other than that just keep on drawing whatever the heck you feel like drawing, and it comes on its own. Styles a sort of nebulous thing that just comes with you as a whole package, haha. You can nurture it, sure, by finding out what you like to do more, but of course, don't neglect the basics either! You learn the HELL out of those foundational things! Draw those boxes and fruit until your fingers bleed!

~rankirubai asks "One of the first few drawings you published on deviantArt included a character called Chirrel Wicker: Has she been reincarnated in your newer characters? When do you think you'll bring her back?"

..I'm going to plead the fifth on that question. Cause it'd.. spoil something.

But I will add, afore I get to the next question.. YOU REMEMBER CHIRREL?

SWEET BEJEEBUS you must've been around a while! Holy cow. I'm flattered. :]

~Mekazawa asks "You said you were going to re-boot the Everafter series. My followup question is if you still plan on making it a webcomic (and updated 1 page at a time)? Or do you plan to publish it as a graphic novel?"

Hey Meka! I would.. ideally.. like to get an entire volume done, then maybe start with a regularly updated series. Or vice versa. You know I'm not actually sure. I still kind of have to gauge interest in the series. Maybe I should ask people in my journal which format they'd like. A big book they could buy and get in their hands and read all the way through, or a page by page updated webcomic-y deal. That's a good question.

But I did have that problem on Snafu. I didn't really care for the weekly updating. It kind of messes up your pacing.

(Not that I'm not totally grateful to Snafu Dave and the rest of the crew for having me there of course.)

~rankirubai asks "Your characters have gone through some redesigns over the years. What is the usual reason for that?"

Eh, simple dissatisfaction with the way they were before. Stories changing, ideas changing. Typically before coming to dA all of that stuff was private, you know, so you never had to worry about anybody really 'seeing' a character until they were fully formed, ready to go. But here on dA, it's a much more progressive thing. You get to see everyone's process, everyone's sharing, and that's awesome. And I like to do that. It's good to get feedback. And well, frankly, I made a lot of mistakes with a lot of designs early on. You can never just draw a character design from the front and assume they're going to work in the GAJILLION poses you need to put them in to make a comic function.

Suffice to say Little Red will never be showing up with a criss-cross belt pattern on an apron ever. Ever. Talk about impossible to 'animate'. Pff.

~DFX4509B asks "Have you done any sculptures of your charas?"

No. I'm possibly the worst 3D artist on the face of the planet. We were supposed to make sculptures in my 3D college course out of like, plastic that we'd later fill with air and they'd form these crazy patterns and shapes. My one friend made a person. My other friend made an automobile. I made a ball.

I will never insult the art of sculpture by attempting any form of it again.
Endling weeps self to sleep.

~rankirubai asks "Some of your drawings are no longer on deviantArt. Can they be found elsewhere, and is there a reason for their removal?"

Yeeeah, no, if they got taken out I just didn't think they were very much worth looking at. I'd prefer to have a smaller gallery of stuff I really like as opposed to a whole bunch of stuff I'm not as fond of. Some stuff is just old. Needs to be put out to pasture.

~DeviousTapper asks "What is your favorite drawing that you are most proud of?"

I really don't have one, to be honest, haha. When things start to work in a drawing it becomes the best thing in the world, and I'm real happy with it and all, and when it's done I just move on to the next. I'm still happy with it, but nothing I've done has ever really stood out to me as like a personal fave.

…though I'll be the first to admit I enjoyed drawing the Fememe a lot.

Something about scarring peoples' lives with the sight of me in lingerie-- MOVING ON.

~rankirubai asks "Has "The Calling Ground" been published anywhere? Do you still have drawings from it?"

I actually have a lot of sketches both new and old from the Calling Grounds, the original sketches of the characters from back then, and some newfangled designs I'd done for fun recently, but it was only ever published in that one anthology Tokyopop did. It was really only meant as a one-shot thing, I never extended the idea. Actually it was already a spinoff of a world I'd been working on back then, but that was.. that was one of those worlds you make when you are little and just keep adding more and more AND MORE ideas into until you have a cast of just under two thousand people from backgrounds ranging from cursed vampires to time-skipping college students to aliens that piloted entire worlds looking for solar systems to eat. I think we've all done something like that.

The teacher in Calling Grounds was a character from that world. It was a spinoff nobody'd be aware of but me but eh. It was still fun.

~zerelin asks "Did you happen to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2? If not, do you plan on playing on the 28th?"

I was playing all last night/early morning. And today with Miki. And I'm probably going to be playing, and playing, and playing. Until I lose my job and try to find an available one bedroom box on the street with internet access to play some more.

If you ask me "do you plan on playing on the ______", you could say any date and I'd say 'yessssssss'.

~rankirubai asks "What types of characters do you enjoy drawing or coming up with the most?"

I like people with swarms of things. Swarms. Like demon armies or undead robots or a flurry of ghosts or giant bloodsucking mind-controlling spiders. They are fun. I like the concept of ghostly possession. It's a blast to draw characters with some kind of horrible haunt. Like Zappa from Guilty Gear!

I guess 'cause you get to draw a character, and then just a whole mess of crazy stuff all in one. Good stuff.

~DFX4509B asks "What do you think of Win8, and what are your favorite materials, either for drawing, painting, or sculpture?

I'm frightened of Win8 and hope to avoid it until something convinces me it's a worthwhile, which shouldn't be too hard. You're looking at a guy who only just upgraded to Win7 from XP LAST MONTH. No fooling. And my favorite materials are real simple, a .5mm mechanical pencil with 2B lead, and regular printer paper.

Can't beat that in my book.

~rankirubai asks "You designed monsters and bosses for Starbound, correct? How was/is it working on that game, and can you say anything about it at this point?"

I just designed SUGGESTIONS for bosses fo-- oh wait Starbound, not Terraria. D'ohhh. Yes, I designed a monster for a contest there, and they chose it to be in the game. It was a contest though; it wasn't like I was on the art team or anything. I knew Tiy from back when he was working on Terraria, we'd talked for a bit about working on something else but-- well wait. No, I can't say anything at this point, never mind. xD

~MindlessCreator asks "Speaking of 2D animation, have you given it a thought to make your own studio, and actually get your stories moving to the silver screen?"

Oh noooo, no no.. I'm absolutely brainless when it comes to business like that. That and I'm not at all equipped to go about animating my own work. If I was ever going to be lucky enough to see anything I made on the big screen I think it'd have to be through just, well... garnering a large enough audience with a comic first and then letting that do the talking. One thing at a time of course, haha... can't even begin to think about animating any kind of feature until I actually get a story up and running in the first place. :]

And with any luck, any luck at all, I'm going to do that soon enough. Well. Get a... comic, I mean. Not a movie.

~rankirubai asks "How do you keep your creative juices flowing?" and ~ConanMiyofugi asks "How do you come up with ideas to draw? You say practice everyday but when I want to, I don't know what to draw."

Creative juices... haha, well! I'd say listening to good music depending on your mood, making sure to take lots of breaks when you need it... be sure to remember that you can get inspiration from way more things than just art alone. (One of my leading excuses for playing games, dohohoho.) Also, try to keep your room relatively tidy, and get to bed at a decent hour. You never, ever think that affects you, but more often than not, on those really blah days... something is off. Either you aren't eating right or you stayed up all late or you're just too scatterbrained to focus.

Take good care of yourself. It's the best way to keep yourself feeling artistic.

Aaand as for coming up with ideas, well.

The terrible side of that 'draw everyday' thing is, you're not going to get ideas everyday, not at all. Most everything I've done that has gotten ANY attention from others was never something I like, sat down and planned to just do, you know? Like. I'm going to make a comic about THIS and it'll feel like THIS and people will think THIS about it. Nahh... it really does kind of come to you. But you have to keep the door open, so to speak, by just drawing whatever. Seriously, whatever.

*RedVenture asks "I personally have a hard time being [brave] enough to come up with original stuff. How do you stand in the face of your own doubts about your own original creations?"

Hmmm.

A lot of art is well, kind of flying in the face of your own fears about your stuff, y'know. People are never going to like everything you do, you can only be so lucky if one person out there really appreciates your stuff. I guess you just sort of have to live for the ones that do. You can learn from the ones that don't, of course. Criticism is a good thing when the criticizer is being constructive in what they have to say, and genuinely interested in helping you better yourself as an artist. And dealing with those issues in your art can help you overcome doubt. Never ENTIRELY, really. I don't think any artist out there puts out work and is 100% sure their original work is going to be the best thing since sliced bread. Ah but we do it anyway, right? Heh.

~PenciledHeart asks "What was it like for you when you first looked for work as an artist?", ~kitty15553 asks "Is having a career in the arts as hard as it is said?", and ~smrtypznt asks "How does working as an artist abroad compare with working in the US?"

Terribly, horribly, unbelievably damning. It's rejections left and right. It can make you miserable, but what sets you apart is whether or not you decide to let that stop you from being what you want to be, or pushing back even harder in spite of that rejection. Improving yourself whatever way you can. But anyway, back to what you were asking… it's just tough, but you got to remind yourself that everyone out there who's ever made it was one of those people who just kept on going through all that stuff. Be brave and believe in yourself. Mooshy as that may sound. Ahaha. Aaaaand as for the other question…

I don't work abroad! I actually work out of my place for the studio. :]

~DFX4509B asks "What types of background noise do you like going on when working?", ~The10Elites asks "What type of music do you like listening to while working on your comic? and does it depend on a certain scene?", and ~Kayne-AD asks "Do you listen to anything when you draw to help you blank out the outside noise and make a calming environment, like rainymood? And when you do draw, how long do you sit there before you need a long break?"

I have recorded stream soundtracks actually. One I'm listening to right this second! Haha. I love that sort of thing. It's not as intrusive as music but just enough to keep your mind... I dunno, just grooving right along with it. Yeah End. Say 'grooving'. Show your age, that's fine. Bahaha... as for what music I enjoy, pretty much everything. I love orchestrated game soundtracks, grunge from the 90s, metal from the 80s, just... a broad spectrum, really. A little bit of everything. :] And I never need to remind myself of when I require a break, my cats do that for me by whatever means necessary. Typically by sitting directly in front of my face and headbutting me in the chin.

~DFX4509B asks "What are your favorite anime series? What is your favorite classic video game?", ~TechnOkami asks "What's your personal favorite Video Game series?," ~grayson-storm26 asks "What consoles do you prefer?," and ~Aluhnim asks "What kind of comic books would you recommend to pick up?"
Ranma 1/2 is what I grew up on, and Spice & Wolf is one of the best written I've ever seen. The back and forth between Lawrence and Holo.. it's so incredibly engaging, haha. If you decide to check it out, try the anime before the manga. And the English dub is actually quite good.

My favorite classic video game, hands down, FF6. No questions, no debate. Haha.

Personal favorite video game SERIES..? Uhh…

Probably Fallout. Fallout 3's beginning was sublime. Unbelievable storytelling, hoowhee. I was totally caught up in that universe.

Consoles... I love handhelds! I recently picked up a Vita, and I'm thinking about a 3DS now. Love me some Disgaea.

Recommended comic books... actually... I don't have any. I don't read as much as I used to. Maybe someone could recommend some to me? :] I'd like that. Send me a note sometime!

~WonderlandTea asks "Time for me to ask a /very/ serious question. How do you feel about Bob Ross? Do happy little clouds inspire you?"

I could only aspire, one day... to have as beautiful a head of hair as that man did. One day. One day.

Even if I have to paint it myself.

~piebot-s asks "Do you think going to an "INSTITUTE OF DA ART" has a significant difference over a regular college? What difference do you see and is it truly worth the $$$?"

Of DA art? I'm not sure what that means. Here on dA?

Endling: I think he means "The?"

Like... art colleges over a regular college? Oh. That depends! You get out of it what you put in. I'd say, before you consider an art college, look up if it's especially good at one subject or another, like if they're known for being particularly good with traditional art or digital art or whatever. My second college wasn't so great with digital art and I later wished I'd done a bit more research about that stuff, I woulda known their traditional courses were much, MUCH more fleshed out.

~DFX4509B asks "Well, if paying for paint hurts, you must use some pretty nice stuff. What exactly do you use?" and ~TechnOkami asks "I'm looking for a digital art program, and, to be honest, all I've really heard so far is that Photoshop and Paint Tool Sai are some of the kings of the art programs, but is there anything else out there that would be worth considering? (I'm also eventually getting a Tablet, soon-ish)"

Oh no I don't use any paints, only nice, cheap, entirely free digital stuff, haha. And I only use Photoshop myself but Miki has been showing me how awesome SAI actually is recently. A lot better for things like inking and such, so I'm trying to teach myself the ins and outs of that program too. But if you're really looking for an in-depth program that will challenge you to the very depths of your soul? Pick up Painter.

It's unbelievably soul crushingly hard to learn but if you master it you come out a god.

Needless to say it defeated me horribly. Could never get the hang of it.

~MindlessCreator asks "Though not in the close future, did you think about hosting another OCT such as Endzone, seeing it's success? Maybe with an entirely different story arc?" and ~Icey5670 asks "Are you considering bringing the deadly sins back into development again?"

Actually I would. Something different though, not an OCT as they are known now. I think the format's gotten.. kind of crusty over time. Needs to be broken down back to the basics, back to what made it really, really fun. That's just my personal take though, I know a lot of people enjoy OCTs to this day and all. But yeah! Long story short, yeah. Looking to retool the idea a bit and see if anyone bites. :] But not Endzone. Endzone is done and over. And yeah, I'd definitely still like to do Living in Sin someday but in the backlog of ideas the priority is kind of low compared to the others.

~TheLivingImpaired asks "When would you say is a good time in the process to stop planning and start telling a story?" and *Jabnormalities asks "How long do you spend writing/rewriting/plotting a story vs. designing the characters?"

You know what, I wish I knew. Try a couple years earlier than I'm attempting, ahaha. I like to have enough of a plan to know where the story is going, roughly, but not enough to clot it up with so many ideas that you can't afford some spontaneity here and there. Maintaining a balance is best, in my opinion. And I've spent a LOT more time writing/rewriting and storyboarding lately than I have drawing. I think I go for months doing one or the other, burn out and then pick it up where I left off again.

*Rook-pawn asks "You seem to have particular wit that I find hilarious. Where do you get ideas and inspiration for that humor?"

Terry Pratchett, again. Thank you, I'm very glad you like the stuff I write, but if you want to see a true master of all things clever, pick up one of his Discworld books, please. You won't be disappointed. (But if you had to go back even further than that, well. My dad is a genuine through and through class clown, and was so throughout my entire childhood. Couldn't ask for a better teacher.)

~iceshard007 asks "How did you learn to color your art so well? Just continual messing around on Photoshop?"

Yeah. Definitely. I picked it up in college cause my stuff looked like utter garbage compared to my peers. Just sat in that program for weeks on end until I got something worthwhile. Looked up tons of resources and tutorials here on dA.

~piebot-s asks "Do you ever get emotional and believe it actually enhances your creativity?" How did you spread your knowledge of drawing different emotions? Did you just look at yourself in the mirror? Or watch people? Memes?"

Actually no, not really. I'm not the type to 'art' better when I'm sad or angry or RAGINGLY drunk. I generally draw better when I'm in a good mood, and when I'm drawing/writing something that makes me chuckle. As for expressions, I think yeah, just look at a lot of photos of people's faces and stuff. Try to find the most extreme expressions and then translate them into your style. Keep loose and flexible. :]

~AZD-eternal asks "How do you start a drawing? Do you start with the background? Or with stick-figures? Or do you just skip the stick people?"

Big loose sketchy shapes. I dunno if this link'll work here but like: endling.deviantart.com/art/rou… That stuff was pretty much all just 'beginning' sketchwork I took to color. Real loose shapes that you eventually see a good pattern in and make a person out of it.

~Mekazawa asks "Do you and Zombiesmile have any future plans to collaborate in a comic/story?

And never with the background. I'm terrible with backgrounds.

I'd love to collaborate more with her, yes indeed. :] Once she has a minute of spare time away from the stories she's in the middle of publishing now, of course.

~Icey5670 asks "I'm trying to draw a comic for my character, but I'm still at loss on how to organize the panels and wording/word bubbles. Any suggestion on how to do them? (like a book, tutorial or lecture I can use as a reference?)"

My goodness. That's nothing I can answer here. Paneling and word bub placement could take an hour minimum to explain all the ins and outs of. Now see, there's a collaboration idea. One of these days I'd love to make a video with Zombiesmile on just that subject, because she's actually already taught courses about it. :] And I think she's a better source of information on it than me. Still, I'd add what I could! But yeah, maybe we should do that sometime... thanks for the idea! And sorry I couldn't be of more immediate help, haha.

Zombiesmile: Let's make that happen. >8U

~PenciledHeart asks "Lots of people have a certain view about their art, what about you? What is you ultimate goal with your art work. What kind of reaction would you like the viewers to have?"

'I can't wait to see more.' is all I could ask for, ahaha. I just want people to feel immersed and interested in what happens next. And as for ultimate goals, like I was saying before, just finishing a graphic novel and publishing it would be great. I would be perfectly happy if I just managed to get all this stuff on paper at last. :]

~Bugs-G asks "Do you have any [final] advice for aspiring artists?

Never forget that it is your work, and nobody else's. Never, ever lose sight of that fact. Seriously. You're the only person who can bring that particular style or art or whatever you want to call it to the table, so appreciate the hell out of it, because it's different than everybody else's. And that's pretty awesome in my book, haha.

Alright everyone! The official interview with `Endling is now complete! I want to thank you all for joining us today and for supporting the ASKtheARTIST project.

Thank you again, `Endling, for the privilege to interview you today, and for your patience and dedication in answering a RECORD number of fan questions for an ASKtheARTIST!
To be notified of when the recorded interview is posted, AND to be informed of all upcoming interviews, please watch us at #ASKtheARTIST , or follow us through Tumblr/Twitter (username: askartists) and our Facebook page --> www.facebook.com/pages/AskTheA…

Thanks to everybody for coming, you guys are amazing!

Next interviews will be with `alexiuss in 2 days on Monday, August 27th @ 6pm (PST - Los Angeles Time) --> asktheartist.deviantart.com/

We shall also be interviewing talented artists `Artgerm and =ElephantWendigo next week!

And a special thanks goes out to tonight's moderating team who records the interviews for us, ~WonderlandTea and ~Twilight-Zero!

Thank you all again for supporting the ASKtheARTIST project! Let your friends know about us! And if you have any recommendations for more artist interviews (other artists that you would like to see us interview here), please note us!

:) (Smile) — Description
Interview with Endling

8/25/2012

Welcome to ASKtheARTIST. My name is *thefluffyshrimp and today I have the great privilege to interview `Endling, an incredibly talented comic artist and creator of many of your favorite series on deviantART.

Thank you for presenting us with this opportunity to interview you, Endling.

Hey all you folks there in AtAChat! Go ahead and start posting questions now.

Thanks for having me Fluff!

I warn everyone I'm on my second triple espresso coffee of the day. If my answers are incoherent and/or jittery you'll know why. I'M WIRED TO GO.

Excellent! Hahaha.

*RedVenture asks "How did you get started doing art, Endling?"

When I was little, my dad would bring home paper from his job. He worked with computers and stuff and often had tons of it lying around, so I'd make use of it and draw. (With his permission. Occasionally.) After a while he noticed I had a habit of doing this. Usually robot caterpillars. I'm not kidding either. I should scan in an example sometime and show it here on dA or something.

Anyway, after noticing he drew me a picture of a fisherman on a boat with a sea serpent staring at him. Simple little thing.

And I was like. HOLY COW. My dad is the best artist in the universe I have to be better than him. And to this day we've fought that eternal struggle.

~zerelin asks "How long does it typically take you to complete a comic page?"

That actually depends on the page. Perspective shots and interiors are absolute murder sometimes. They take forever to get right. More often than not you spend about 10% of the time actually drawing what's going on, and the rest of the 90% FIXING every last little thing. I would say that I could do about two lined pages in a day if I was going full force, but if I'm grayscaling.. and really trying to make it look nice.. ehhh. One. Haha. I'm terrible! I haven't drawn a comic in ages so I'm really, really rusty.

(Coffee helps.)

~DeviousTapper asks "How to you plan to continue Everafter?"

WELP. Hunker down, long answer incoming.

I was waiting to see when that question was going to come up, haha.. all right. You know, I've been avoiding answering that for.. well. A loooong long whiles now. After I decided to stop progress on Everafter, I never wanted to get too many peoples hopes up by acting as if it was all ready to go again, much as people wanted to see it. I had the story in mind, back then, but the main problem was, I kind of launched into it a little too quickly, on a schedule I couldn't keep up with over time, etc, etc. Oh hell, I could go on for miles about why it ended, but you asked if I'd continue it, and I veered off didn't I. Haha.

(Still answering btw. It's coming, IT'S COMING.)

YES, I absolutely positively want to continue Everafter, but not as it stands right now. I kind of want to get back to what it was intended to be, and not what I just kind of.. tossed up simply because I was on a rushed timetable to keep on making pages while holding down my job. I really love the story, and the characters, and as much as I didn't want to just up and leave it behind, I didn't want to pick it up again unless I knew I could do it justice and tell the story how I really wanted to.

Long story short, I'm going to be rebooting it. I've been in the process of a very, very long rewrite ever since it shut down, and I can safely say, lately. I'm really happy with what's been going on. And I'm very much looking forward to drawing those characters again. Hopefully sooner than alter. :]

..later.

I almost made it through that entire answer without a typo.

~JesterCapp asks "How do you feel your goals as a professional artist have changed over the past couple years? What's a challenge you want to tackle in the future?"

I've veered away from comic art and more into the game industry. Truth be told it was always a dream of mine, whereas comics were a fun hobby. I got a job working for Spidermonk Entertainment in 2007 and was at the studio for about three years, and since then moved on to work with two other studios, the one I'm with right now is actually in Barcelona. We're making an MMO. :] My goals though, to be honest, they haven't changed. I still want to make a graphic novel, I still want an artbook (or 2, or 3, or 8), and I still want to do stupid little comics like that Teef one with Ree from a while back on a regular basis. That's my real ultimate aim, but don't get me wrong, I love working on video games, since any time I'm NOT drawing I'm pretty much gaming away.

(Hence the coffee. Guess who was up till the wee hours last night playing Guild Wars 2.)

Long answer.

~Mekazawa asks "Have you ever wanted to see any of your stories animated?"

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.

You know though? Only 2D. Hand drawn man, HAND DRAWN. With the scribbly bits STILL VISIBLE!

Nothing against 3D but in my book nothing, nothing tops hand drawn animation.

(Just kidding about the long answer that's all I got. Just a lot of very emphatic "e"s.)

~Erac asks "Did you ever have a formal education in art? (like going to an art school after high school?)"

Yeah, I went to two different art colleges, one for Fine Arts and the other for Digital Illustration, following a very brief stint as an Animation major.

Tip for future fine artists of the non-digital variety in here. Paying for paint hurts.

~Artogis asks "Which comic artists inspire you the most?"

Hiroaki Samura about sums it up in my book. Though I can't claim we have a similar style. The man is a genius with traditional medium. It's just inspiration though, not necessarily a desire to have a similar style, I guess. He's the author of Blade of the Immortal, a comic very, very well worth your time to read, if you didn't know.

~kitty15553 asks "What process did you go through when creating your characters (like Ree and such)?"

There's no real hard set process. Just a looot, a lot, a lot of mistakes, until you get something that just makes you go.. yeah, that's what they're supposed to look like. Kind of like you already had a picture of them in your head but you just couldn't see it clearly. And hell, even when you get something you like you keep on editing and editing over time, haha. Refining. And you don't w ant to get too lost in that process. DON'T BE LIKE ME. Don't sit around editing your characters into the ground! Tell their story I say, TELL IT. A character needs a story and that story needs telling before people'll really get to see what you had in mind.

*Miropepo asks "If you didn't have to work for a living (having free time) what do/would want to work on or do?"

Comic backlog. Ree, Everafter, the Hollow short story series I've been working on recently, and Living in Sin. Not necessarily in that order. But yeah, no doubts, no hesitation.. haha. I would want to get started on all of those right off the bat. I'd really like to get something published. Got about five years of rust piled all over the comic side of my brain to start chipping away at. :]

Game industry's been fun but I feel like my heart's back there.

~MindlessCreator asks "When did it hit you that you've became rather famous on DA and how did you react for it?"

I was grateful. It's nice to wake up in the morning and see a slew of people telling you they can't wait for the next thing you're going to draw. It gives what was already a fun hobby a really passionate purpose. Truth be told though, nothing really.. changed in my day to day life. People see the big numbers and they assume a lot about.. I dunno. Lifestyles and book signings or things like that, but really you just keep on posting up art and hoping people like it, day to day. Haha. And you feel lucky every day they do.

Page hits do not an artist make! But people who really give a damn do. And I love that anybody gives a damn.

~rankirubai asks "What made you decide to publish some of your art portfolio on this site?"

Oh my. You've seen that? Ahaha. Well! I don't really have a dedicated art site or anything, and dA was offering the service so I thought, hey why not. Could use it. It's always a good idea to keep an updated portfolio handy. You never know when like, a job is going to be open for what, a DAY. And you need to throw together a super fast resume and toss your portfolio their way. Especially if you're a freelancer. My goodness though, I haven't updated that thing in a while.. oh! Quick tip about portfolios.

COMPLETELY unrelated but something that I don't hear many people telling others.

When you do send a portfolio to a studio.. and you don't hear back from them?

Send another portfolio, an updated one, maybe.. 2-3 months later. Or so. I think that's the recommended about of time. It's a little trick I've seen at work. Sometimes, companies want to know how fast you can improve in a short amount of time, if you're not compleeetely up to snuff the first time at the gate.

Also it's a good thing to keep on going. Keeps you improving, which is always a good thing. :]

~DFX4509B asks "What do you draw for fun?"

Lately? Monsters and robots. They're about the easiest kind of stress relief/practice subject matter I can tackle without ever worrying too much about what the end result is going to be. You can get away with really wild and nonsensical shapes, instead of WORKING YOUR FINGERS TO THE BONE trying to make the human elbow look juuuuust right. A whole lot of big scribbly messes. It can be a lot of fun. Especially when you manage to pull a real fun idea out of it. Had it happen enough times where a simple series of warm-ups turned into something much bigger, and that's always a nice feeling.

Also my goodness, look at that list on the right. You guys are fantastic, haha.. awesome seeing so many folks here at once.

(You should know in between questions I'm sneaking around in your galleries bit by bit.)

~rankirubai asks "You have three major stories you've developed over the years: Ever After, Living in Sin, and Ree. Two out of those three have female protagonists. Any particular reason for that?"

When I was growing up, I was very much into comics. Spiderman in particular, was my favorite superhero. (Still is.) Anyway, I got used to male protagonists. A lot of them. In the books I read, "comics" I made and movies, both animated and otherwise, I saw. And there wasn't a problem with this or anything, but.. after a while I kind of began to wonder why there were not too many female leads in these things. And then when there WAS a female lead.. errrr.. you can say it left something to be desired. All too often I came across you know.. the infamous 'chainmail bikini' type lead, with lips the size of a compressed buick and.. other attributes that followed suit.

Or twinkly pixie types a la Sailor Moon and that ilk.

So!

~rankirubai asks "In what ways has Mikiko helped your art and creativity improve? What kind of insights on art, character design, storytelling, etc has she given you?

..who is Mikiko?

I KID. I KIIID.

Wow, that's one hell of a question. One full of pitfalls, left and right. Big mushy pitfalls.

Without sounding too much like I'm trying to score some serious points with the missus here. I can safely say Miki has kept me art-ing when I might have just decided to up and become a long shoreman in frustration. She's kept me inspired, sane, and INCREDIBLY well fed oh my god she's the most fantastic cook you would not believe. She has work ethic in spades, work ethic I could use.

She can tell a story, she can draw a multitude of character types, she can make videos, narrate interviews, appear on television without looking like some kind of horrendous pale swamp monster like myself.

She can do it all, and I envy every last bit of those qualities. She's helped me become a better artist every single day, and she has a left hook like a heavyweight champion for when I'm getting all mopey about art.

That's all I got. She's perfect and I am incredibly lucky to have her in my life and oh my god DERAILED QUESTION BWAHAHAH.

=TheMagpieGrimoire asks "Who were your main inspirations when learning how to write stories and create characters?"

Ahem.

Hey Magpiiiiiiie.. you brilliant artist you.

There's a gallery worth checking out, right there, Magpie's. That talented when you're that young. Ugh. It makes me sick. But in an entirely good and flattering way. Anyway.

If I could sum up my entire inspiration for story, character, humor and all that stuff, it'd be smack dab in between Terry Pratchett and Mystery Science Theater 3000. If I was stuck on a deserted island with a mysteriously working television set, I would want the collected works of those two brilliant franchises with me. I've never seen such amazing wit and scathing cleverness in both.

I'm not saying in any way the stuff I do is on these guys level, but my goodness I can only hope it will be eventually.

(Write it down! Pick up a Terry Pratchett book! Small Gods or Wyrd Sisters! Maybe Reaper Man.. or Hogfather! )

You will come out of it feeling inspired!

~zadokahn asks "Any tips on developing my own style?"

Draw every day. Try drawing other peoples work sometime. More often than not what sets your work apart from theirs is a summary of your own style. But don't.. wedge yourself into the notion of 'style' either, I don't think it's particularly healthy to just flat out say WELL I do chins a mile long that's just what I do so I'm gonna keep on doing it so it'll be my thing. Well. Unless you want that to be your thing. It really depends on your own perspective. Do you want people to know you for one thing or another? Do more of it I guess. Other than that just keep on drawing whatever the heck you feel like drawing, and it comes on its own. Styles a sort of nebulous thing that just comes with you as a whole package, haha. You can nurture it, sure, by finding out what you like to do more, but of course, don't neglect the basics either! You learn the HELL out of those foundational things! Draw those boxes and fruit until your fingers bleed!

~rankirubai asks "One of the first few drawings you published on deviantArt included a character called Chirrel Wicker: Has she been reincarnated in your newer characters? When do you think you'll bring her back?"

..I'm going to plead the fifth on that question. Cause it'd.. spoil something.

But I will add, afore I get to the next question.. YOU REMEMBER CHIRREL?

SWEET BEJEEBUS you must've been around a while! Holy cow. I'm flattered. :]

~Mekazawa asks "You said you were going to re-boot the Everafter series. My followup question is if you still plan on making it a webcomic (and updated 1 page at a time)? Or do you plan to publish it as a graphic novel?"

Hey Meka! I would.. ideally.. like to get an entire volume done, then maybe start with a regularly updated series. Or vice versa. You know I'm not actually sure. I still kind of have to gauge interest in the series. Maybe I should ask people in my journal which format they'd like. A big book they could buy and get in their hands and read all the way through, or a page by page updated webcomic-y deal. That's a good question.

But I did have that problem on Snafu. I didn't really care for the weekly updating. It kind of messes up your pacing.

(Not that I'm not totally grateful to Snafu Dave and the rest of the crew for having me there of course.)

~rankirubai asks "Your characters have gone through some redesigns over the years. What is the usual reason for that?"

Eh, simple dissatisfaction with the way they were before. Stories changing, ideas changing. Typically before coming to dA all of that stuff was private, you know, so you never had to worry about anybody really 'seeing' a character until they were fully formed, ready to go. But here on dA, it's a much more progressive thing. You get to see everyone's process, everyone's sharing, and that's awesome. And I like to do that. It's good to get feedback. And well, frankly, I made a lot of mistakes with a lot of designs early on. You can never just draw a character design from the front and assume they're going to work in the GAJILLION poses you need to put them in to make a comic function.

Suffice to say Little Red will never be showing up with a criss-cross belt pattern on an apron ever. Ever. Talk about impossible to 'animate'. Pff.

~DFX4509B asks "Have you done any sculptures of your charas?"

No. I'm possibly the worst 3D artist on the face of the planet. We were supposed to make sculptures in my 3D college course out of like, plastic that we'd later fill with air and they'd form these crazy patterns and shapes. My one friend made a person. My other friend made an automobile. I made a ball.

I will never insult the art of sculpture by attempting any form of it again.
Endling weeps self to sleep.

~rankirubai asks "Some of your drawings are no longer on deviantArt. Can they be found elsewhere, and is there a reason for their removal?"

Yeeeah, no, if they got taken out I just didn't think they were very much worth looking at. I'd prefer to have a smaller gallery of stuff I really like as opposed to a whole bunch of stuff I'm not as fond of. Some stuff is just old. Needs to be put out to pasture.

~DeviousTapper asks "What is your favorite drawing that you are most proud of?"

I really don't have one, to be honest, haha. When things start to work in a drawing it becomes the best thing in the world, and I'm real happy with it and all, and when it's done I just move on to the next. I'm still happy with it, but nothing I've done has ever really stood out to me as like a personal fave.

…though I'll be the first to admit I enjoyed drawing the Fememe a lot.

Something about scarring peoples' lives with the sight of me in lingerie-- MOVING ON.

~rankirubai asks "Has "The Calling Ground" been published anywhere? Do you still have drawings from it?"

I actually have a lot of sketches both new and old from the Calling Grounds, the original sketches of the characters from back then, and some newfangled designs I'd done for fun recently, but it was only ever published in that one anthology Tokyopop did. It was really only meant as a one-shot thing, I never extended the idea. Actually it was already a spinoff of a world I'd been working on back then, but that was.. that was one of those worlds you make when you are little and just keep adding more and more AND MORE ideas into until you have a cast of just under two thousand people from backgrounds ranging from cursed vampires to time-skipping college students to aliens that piloted entire worlds looking for solar systems to eat. I think we've all done something like that.

The teacher in Calling Grounds was a character from that world. It was a spinoff nobody'd be aware of but me but eh. It was still fun.

~zerelin asks "Did you happen to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2? If not, do you plan on playing on the 28th?"

I was playing all last night/early morning. And today with Miki. And I'm probably going to be playing, and playing, and playing. Until I lose my job and try to find an available one bedroom box on the street with internet access to play some more.

If you ask me "do you plan on playing on the ______", you could say any date and I'd say 'yessssssss'.

~rankirubai asks "What types of characters do you enjoy drawing or coming up with the most?"

I like people with swarms of things. Swarms. Like demon armies or undead robots or a flurry of ghosts or giant bloodsucking mind-controlling spiders. They are fun. I like the concept of ghostly possession. It's a blast to draw characters with some kind of horrible haunt. Like Zappa from Guilty Gear!

I guess 'cause you get to draw a character, and then just a whole mess of crazy stuff all in one. Good stuff.

~DFX4509B asks "What do you think of Win8, and what are your favorite materials, either for drawing, painting, or sculpture?

I'm frightened of Win8 and hope to avoid it until something convinces me it's a worthwhile, which shouldn't be too hard. You're looking at a guy who only just upgraded to Win7 from XP LAST MONTH. No fooling. And my favorite materials are real simple, a .5mm mechanical pencil with 2B lead, and regular printer paper.

Can't beat that in my book.

~rankirubai asks "You designed monsters and bosses for Starbound, correct? How was/is it working on that game, and can you say anything about it at this point?"

I just designed SUGGESTIONS for bosses fo-- oh wait Starbound, not Terraria. D'ohhh. Yes, I designed a monster for a contest there, and they chose it to be in the game. It was a contest though; it wasn't like I was on the art team or anything. I knew Tiy from back when he was working on Terraria, we'd talked for a bit about working on something else but-- well wait. No, I can't say anything at this point, never mind. xD

~MindlessCreator asks "Speaking of 2D animation, have you given it a thought to make your own studio, and actually get your stories moving to the silver screen?"

Oh noooo, no no.. I'm absolutely brainless when it comes to business like that. That and I'm not at all equipped to go about animating my own work. If I was ever going to be lucky enough to see anything I made on the big screen I think it'd have to be through just, well... garnering a large enough audience with a comic first and then letting that do the talking. One thing at a time of course, haha... can't even begin to think about animating any kind of feature until I actually get a story up and running in the first place. :]

And with any luck, any luck at all, I'm going to do that soon enough. Well. Get a... comic, I mean. Not a movie.

~rankirubai asks "How do you keep your creative juices flowing?" and ~ConanMiyofugi asks "How do you come up with ideas to draw? You say practice everyday but when I want to, I don't know what to draw."

Creative juices... haha, well! I'd say listening to good music depending on your mood, making sure to take lots of breaks when you need it... be sure to remember that you can get inspiration from way more things than just art alone. (One of my leading excuses for playing games, dohohoho.) Also, try to keep your room relatively tidy, and get to bed at a decent hour. You never, ever think that affects you, but more often than not, on those really blah days... something is off. Either you aren't eating right or you stayed up all late or you're just too scatterbrained to focus.

Take good care of yourself. It's the best way to keep yourself feeling artistic.

Aaand as for coming up with ideas, well.

The terrible side of that 'draw everyday' thing is, you're not going to get ideas everyday, not at all. Most everything I've done that has gotten ANY attention from others was never something I like, sat down and planned to just do, you know? Like. I'm going to make a comic about THIS and it'll feel like THIS and people will think THIS about it. Nahh... it really does kind of come to you. But you have to keep the door open, so to speak, by just drawing whatever. Seriously, whatever.

*RedVenture asks "I personally have a hard time being [brave] enough to come up with original stuff. How do you stand in the face of your own doubts about your own original creations?"

Hmmm.

A lot of art is well, kind of flying in the face of your own fears about your stuff, y'know. People are never going to like everything you do, you can only be so lucky if one person out there really appreciates your stuff. I guess you just sort of have to live for the ones that do. You can learn from the ones that don't, of course. Criticism is a good thing when the criticizer is being constructive in what they have to say, and genuinely interested in helping you better yourself as an artist. And dealing with those issues in your art can help you overcome doubt. Never ENTIRELY, really. I don't think any artist out there puts out work and is 100% sure their original work is going to be the best thing since sliced bread. Ah but we do it anyway, right? Heh.

~PenciledHeart asks "What was it like for you when you first looked for work as an artist?", ~kitty15553 asks "Is having a career in the arts as hard as it is said?", and ~smrtypznt asks "How does working as an artist abroad compare with working in the US?"

Terribly, horribly, unbelievably damning. It's rejections left and right. It can make you miserable, but what sets you apart is whether or not you decide to let that stop you from being what you want to be, or pushing back even harder in spite of that rejection. Improving yourself whatever way you can. But anyway, back to what you were asking… it's just tough, but you got to remind yourself that everyone out there who's ever made it was one of those people who just kept on going through all that stuff. Be brave and believe in yourself. Mooshy as that may sound. Ahaha. Aaaaand as for the other question…

I don't work abroad! I actually work out of my place for the studio. :]

~DFX4509B asks "What types of background noise do you like going on when working?", ~The10Elites asks "What type of music do you like listening to while working on your comic? and does it depend on a certain scene?", and ~Kayne-AD asks "Do you listen to anything when you draw to help you blank out the outside noise and make a calming environment, like rainymood? And when you do draw, how long do you sit there before you need a long break?"

I have recorded stream soundtracks actually. One I'm listening to right this second! Haha. I love that sort of thing. It's not as intrusive as music but just enough to keep your mind... I dunno, just grooving right along with it. Yeah End. Say 'grooving'. Show your age, that's fine. Bahaha... as for what music I enjoy, pretty much everything. I love orchestrated game soundtracks, grunge from the 90s, metal from the 80s, just... a broad spectrum, really. A little bit of everything. :] And I never need to remind myself of when I require a break, my cats do that for me by whatever means necessary. Typically by sitting directly in front of my face and headbutting me in the chin.

~DFX4509B asks "What are your favorite anime series? What is your favorite classic video game?", ~TechnOkami asks "What's your personal favorite Video Game series?," ~grayson-storm26 asks "What consoles do you prefer?," and ~Aluhnim asks "What kind of comic books would you recommend to pick up?"
Ranma 1/2 is what I grew up on, and Spice & Wolf is one of the best written I've ever seen. The back and forth between Lawrence and Holo.. it's so incredibly engaging, haha. If you decide to check it out, try the anime before the manga. And the English dub is actually quite good.

My favorite classic video game, hands down, FF6. No questions, no debate. Haha.

Personal favorite video game SERIES..? Uhh…

Probably Fallout. Fallout 3's beginning was sublime. Unbelievable storytelling, hoowhee. I was totally caught up in that universe.

Consoles... I love handhelds! I recently picked up a Vita, and I'm thinking about a 3DS now. Love me some Disgaea.

Recommended comic books... actually... I don't have any. I don't read as much as I used to. Maybe someone could recommend some to me? :] I'd like that. Send me a note sometime!

~WonderlandTea asks "Time for me to ask a /very/ serious question. How do you feel about Bob Ross? Do happy little clouds inspire you?"

I could only aspire, one day... to have as beautiful a head of hair as that man did. One day. One day.

Even if I have to paint it myself.

~piebot-s asks "Do you think going to an "INSTITUTE OF DA ART" has a significant difference over a regular college? What difference do you see and is it truly worth the $$$?"

Of DA art? I'm not sure what that means. Here on dA?

Endling: I think he means "The?"

Like... art colleges over a regular college? Oh. That depends! You get out of it what you put in. I'd say, before you consider an art college, look up if it's especially good at one subject or another, like if they're known for being particularly good with traditional art or digital art or whatever. My second college wasn't so great with digital art and I later wished I'd done a bit more research about that stuff, I woulda known their traditional courses were much, MUCH more fleshed out.

~DFX4509B asks "Well, if paying for paint hurts, you must use some pretty nice stuff. What exactly do you use?" and ~TechnOkami asks "I'm looking for a digital art program, and, to be honest, all I've really heard so far is that Photoshop and Paint Tool Sai are some of the kings of the art programs, but is there anything else out there that would be worth considering? (I'm also eventually getting a Tablet, soon-ish)"

Oh no I don't use any paints, only nice, cheap, entirely free digital stuff, haha. And I only use Photoshop myself but Miki has been showing me how awesome SAI actually is recently. A lot better for things like inking and such, so I'm trying to teach myself the ins and outs of that program too. But if you're really looking for an in-depth program that will challenge you to the very depths of your soul? Pick up Painter.

It's unbelievably soul crushingly hard to learn but if you master it you come out a god.

Needless to say it defeated me horribly. Could never get the hang of it.

~MindlessCreator asks "Though not in the close future, did you think about hosting another OCT such as Endzone, seeing it's success? Maybe with an entirely different story arc?" and ~Icey5670 asks "Are you considering bringing the deadly sins back into development again?"

Actually I would. Something different though, not an OCT as they are known now. I think the format's gotten.. kind of crusty over time. Needs to be broken down back to the basics, back to what made it really, really fun. That's just my personal take though, I know a lot of people enjoy OCTs to this day and all. But yeah! Long story short, yeah. Looking to retool the idea a bit and see if anyone bites. :] But not Endzone. Endzone is done and over. And yeah, I'd definitely still like to do Living in Sin someday but in the backlog of ideas the priority is kind of low compared to the others.

~TheLivingImpaired asks "When would you say is a good time in the process to stop planning and start telling a story?" and *Jabnormalities asks "How long do you spend writing/rewriting/plotting a story vs. designing the characters?"

You know what, I wish I knew. Try a couple years earlier than I'm attempting, ahaha. I like to have enough of a plan to know where the story is going, roughly, but not enough to clot it up with so many ideas that you can't afford some spontaneity here and there. Maintaining a balance is best, in my opinion. And I've spent a LOT more time writing/rewriting and storyboarding lately than I have drawing. I think I go for months doing one or the other, burn out and then pick it up where I left off again.

*Rook-pawn asks "You seem to have particular wit that I find hilarious. Where do you get ideas and inspiration for that humor?"

Terry Pratchett, again. Thank you, I'm very glad you like the stuff I write, but if you want to see a true master of all things clever, pick up one of his Discworld books, please. You won't be disappointed. (But if you had to go back even further than that, well. My dad is a genuine through and through class clown, and was so throughout my entire childhood. Couldn't ask for a better teacher.)

~iceshard007 asks "How did you learn to color your art so well? Just continual messing around on Photoshop?"

Yeah. Definitely. I picked it up in college cause my stuff looked like utter garbage compared to my peers. Just sat in that program for weeks on end until I got something worthwhile. Looked up tons of resources and tutorials here on dA.

~piebot-s asks "Do you ever get emotional and believe it actually enhances your creativity?" How did you spread your knowledge of drawing different emotions? Did you just look at yourself in the mirror? Or watch people? Memes?"

Actually no, not really. I'm not the type to 'art' better when I'm sad or angry or RAGINGLY drunk. I generally draw better when I'm in a good mood, and when I'm drawing/writing something that makes me chuckle. As for expressions, I think yeah, just look at a lot of photos of people's faces and stuff. Try to find the most extreme expressions and then translate them into your style. Keep loose and flexible. :]

~AZD-eternal asks "How do you start a drawing? Do you start with the background? Or with stick-figures? Or do you just skip the stick people?"

Big loose sketchy shapes. I dunno if this link'll work here but like: endling.deviantart.com/art/rou… That stuff was pretty much all just 'beginning' sketchwork I took to color. Real loose shapes that you eventually see a good pattern in and make a person out of it.

~Mekazawa asks "Do you and Zombiesmile have any future plans to collaborate in a comic/story?

And never with the background. I'm terrible with backgrounds.

I'd love to collaborate more with her, yes indeed. :] Once she has a minute of spare time away from the stories she's in the middle of publishing now, of course.

~Icey5670 asks "I'm trying to draw a comic for my character, but I'm still at loss on how to organize the panels and wording/word bubbles. Any suggestion on how to do them? (like a book, tutorial or lecture I can use as a reference?)"

My goodness. That's nothing I can answer here. Paneling and word bub placement could take an hour minimum to explain all the ins and outs of. Now see, there's a collaboration idea. One of these days I'd love to make a video with Zombiesmile on just that subject, because she's actually already taught courses about it. :] And I think she's a better source of information on it than me. Still, I'd add what I could! But yeah, maybe we should do that sometime... thanks for the idea! And sorry I couldn't be of more immediate help, haha.

Zombiesmile: Let's make that happen. >8U

~PenciledHeart asks "Lots of people have a certain view about their art, what about you? What is you ultimate goal with your art work. What kind of reaction would you like the viewers to have?"

'I can't wait to see more.' is all I could ask for, ahaha. I just want people to feel immersed and interested in what happens next. And as for ultimate goals, like I was saying before, just finishing a graphic novel and publishing it would be great. I would be perfectly happy if I just managed to get all this stuff on paper at last. :]

~Bugs-G asks "Do you have any [final] advice for aspiring artists?

Never forget that it is your work, and nobody else's. Never, ever lose sight of that fact. Seriously. You're the only person who can bring that particular style or art or whatever you want to call it to the table, so appreciate the hell out of it, because it's different than everybody else's. And that's pretty awesome in my book, haha.

Alright everyone! The official interview with `Endling is now complete! I want to thank you all for joining us today and for supporting the ASKtheARTIST project.

Thank you again, `Endling, for the privilege to interview you today, and for your patience and dedication in answering a RECORD number of fan questions for an ASKtheARTIST!
To be notified of when the recorded interview is posted, AND to be informed of all upcoming interviews, please watch us at #ASKtheARTIST , or follow us through Tumblr/Twitter (username: askartists) and our Facebook page --> www.facebook.com/pages/AskTheA…

Thanks to everybody for coming, you guys are amazing!

Next interviews will be with `alexiuss in 2 days on Monday, August 27th @ 6pm (PST - Los Angeles Time) --> asktheartist.deviantart.com/

We shall also be interviewing talented artists `Artgerm and =ElephantWendigo next week!

And a special thanks goes out to tonight's moderating team who records the interviews for us, ~WonderlandTea and ~Twilight-Zero!

Thank you all again for supporting the ASKtheARTIST project! Let your friends know about us! And if you have any recommendations for more artist interviews (other artists that you would like to see us interview here), please note us!