~ThePepperyMonster asks:
What's your favorite home-made dish? How about your favorite French dish?

I'd like to say salad but that's such a broad answer so I guess I'll go for my self-made lasagne. It can be either vegetarian or not, depending if I have company or not and it's just...awesome. '
Ugh I have to admit I haven't really been eating a lot of typically French stuff here.
Quiche can be quite good though.


=ScottiBug asks:
Who is your real life inspiration? I mean who in your life (not online) inspires you to draw?

That's a tough one but I'd probably say my fiancé because he can always make me feel better about my art when I have a low and among all the hundreds of things he wants me to draw I can always pick out a few that really inspire me. ^^


=winged-lotus asks:
I've figured from your username that you're a fan of WoT; if you were Aes Sedai, which Ajah do you think you'd choose?

Without a doubt the Brown Ajah. I'm a calm and knowledge thirsty person, I love my books and very often sink into a daydream-like state which can be compared to the general demeanour of most Browns.


~Blonde-in-Blue asks:
Do you have any tips for painting grass and water?

To answer this I have created these two tutorials. They might not deal with every singly aspect of drawing grass and water but they give you a good basic idea of how I go about it. :3



*GnarledContradiction asks:
Do you occasionally get a case of artist's block? And if so, what do you do to remedy it?

Artist's block is something that I haven't had in a rather long time because I never lack inspiration; ideas are rather overflowing in my mind.
But when it does occur it always helps me to play a game I like, read a good book or listen to some of my favourite music and draw inspiration from that.


!Vito95 asks:
Hast du Milch? U mad? Problem? Magst du Kekse?

Bought a fresh bottle yesterday. Ofc I am! Never! Who doesn't like cookies?


~WaruiBelmont asks:
What do you think bout warui? Do you think he should rule us all?

Warui is a sweet person with a much too big ego and head. And if he were to rule us all, we'd be doomed for sure. Believe me.


~NatureGuide asks:
How do you do the glowy stuff (mushrooms, etc.) and nature paintings like Faron Spring? Could you/will you post a tutorial, or is it some "secret of the trade" thing (or just time)?

For you as well I have created a tutorial, that deals with glowy stuff and for the nature paintings you might find some help in the two tutorials above.
Here your tutorial:


You might also find this step-by-step interesting, that I posted a while ago:


As you can see there, I used a rough pencil sketch, then sketched out the basic colour theme and continued by placing all the important elements on single layers to get a rather clean look. Faron Spring has been created with the same technique, yet I didn't draw a pencil sketch but started right away with a rough coloured brush one.
On some works I also don't use that many layers at all and rather just paint on just one single layer for most of the time, like here:

The only thing on a different layer are the spores and floating lights around the mushrooms.


~ColoringTheRain asks:
What kind of things freak you out or make you worry?

What freaks me out are bugs lol. They're scary. Period.
And I worry about way too many things to actually list them. Money would be one of them.


~PrincessBunnyLvr asks:
Which country and state do u live in?

I was born and spent most of my life in Austria but at the moment I live in France.


!Rubeah asks:
How long does it take you to draw your chibis? Or any of your art styles?

Chibis usually go rather fast, if I work hard I can completely finish them within half a day. But since not every sketch comes that easily, it can take quite a bit longer.
Apart from that it really depends. A landscape can take me two hours or half a week. It's really a matter of how far I want to render the picture, how much detail is included, the general difficulty of the subject etc etc.


!Anzkji asks:
Read Homestuck? Lineless or not? Uh... Potatoes or tomatoes?

Nope never read it.
I prefer lineless because doing outlines is one of the most tedious parts of drawing ever. But I do agree that clean lines can make a picture look very nice.
Tomatoes!


~ExaltedPoet asks:
How long have you been in dA?

Counting my first account...about 7 years. However I was beyond inactive back then, so I should only count the 1,5 years that I have had my current account.


~xKobiee asks:
Your favorite TV Show/movie?

Oooh you're gonna make me decide? That's so cruel lol.
Well I'll pick two series. First, Friends because I love sitcoms in general and it's just incredibly comfortable to watch, still funny after watching it for the 5th time and just makes me feel really good.
Second, Stargate SG-1. I love this series so much, you have no idea! ;w; It just never gets boring, the suspense never gets less and you gotta love the characters. And as a little secret: The name Vala is taken from a character of that series.

Favourite movie....hmmm...anything with Karl Urban! xD Jk. ^^
The LotR trilogy and Detroit Metal City.


~Diamondd-Dreams asks:
HOW ARE YOU TODAY?

A little tired, very thoughtful and happy because it's raining.


~DreamSkyPixel asks:
Warum hat dein Icon kein Blümchen?

My icon doesn't have a flower because *Pippanaffie created it like that. ;D Go ask her. xD


~DJMeta asks:
What are your favourite games? What was the first piece of art you ever made that you were really proud of?

Since he wanted me to be precise this might take a while lol.
You do all know that I love Zelda but to be more specific I especially love all the 3D ones with the exception of Skyward Sword in an approximate order like this:

1. Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask
2. Wind Waker
3. Twilight Princess

Furthermore I'm a real RPG freak and I particularly love snes ones with Chrono Trigger and Terranigma on top of the list. When it comes to 3D RPGs I just gotta mention Grandia 2, Skies of Arcadia and Tales of Symphonia.
And of course not to forget - on a more western note - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
Oh and how I could I, I almost didn't mention Harvest Moon, one of my favourite series of all times. Magical Melody (GC), Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) and HM 64 I place especially high.

The first piece of art I was really proud of...I think that were illustrations to songs of my favourite band Summoning that I did with water colours. I think they might not even exist anymore though.


*Ilionej asks:
How old were you when you signed your first piece of art? (any media, just your first signed piece)

I can remember that I signed all my works when I started drawing manga style in 2002 but I have a faint memory of having signed some works back in 1999 as well and I was like 11 years old back then.


~Drawing-Stars-02 asks:
What's your favorite color? Favorite kind of clothing? (obvious like pants, shirts, or more detailed like the name of the clothing you would tell me, or accessories.) Favorite time of day? Favorite thing to draw/pixel?

Look at the colour of my journal. I do also love green a lot for being the colour of plants and nature.
Favourite kind of clothing gotta be scarves and shawls. I am obsessed with them and have them in all kinds of colours, patterns, sizes, materials,...
Funnily enough my favourite time of the day is early morning, even though I usually sleep rather late. But I simply love the feeling that it's the beginning of something and how calm it is then, even in the city.
Well there's quite a lot of things I really love to draw but I'd have to put environments with high contrast lighting all the way on top.


*InaliaFox asks:
What programs do you use? How do you do your shading and highlighting on hair and eyes?

I use almost exclusively Photoshop Elements 8.0 to paint and pixel, and Gimp 2.6.11 to animate my pixels.
I have tried out several other programs like Corel painter or SAI but none has really caught my attention for very long. Photoshop is simply such a good all-rounder.

Highlighting on eyes can be very different, depending on my mood or how realistic the style I apply at that moment is. But for chibis for instance I highlight with a basic round and white brush, smoothen the edges and go over it with the dodge tool set on highlights to give it an extra shine.
For hair as well it's very different, depending on if it's cel-shading or more realistic but in both cases the dodge tool can be very useful.


*miffedplatypus asks:
What's your favorite books? How did you get into pixeling and emoting? Why can't I understand Statistics? Why is it that good ideas always come in the middle of the night when you're dreaming?

My favourite books are The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Pyramids by Terry Pratchett and Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling. So, anything fantasy goes basically.

I got into pixeling through the lovely ~Rocket-Out. Seeing her cute icons I got an urge to try myself with pixels too. Emotes just kinda came along the way with pixeling but it's still and probably always will be nothing too important for me.

Statistics is evil. There you go.

Because your mind is free of all the mundane things that float through your head and bother you during the day.


~VelociraptorBlade asks:
Your tutorials pretty much answer all the art questions I have... unless you'd like to give more tips?

I'll give more of them in due time, unless you can ask something more precise.


~Moonshine15 asks:
Could you do a water tutorial? Not a simple one, but one with like foam or whatever you call that white stuff.

I have planned a few more mini-tutorials, at least one of them still about water, so you might find what you're looking for there.