Arena Artist Spotlight ~ July

[Griffin]

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the MLP Arena and our wonderful community of pony fans, we’re introducing a monthly artist spotlight! The idea is to showcase the variety of artistic talent and craftsmanship our members bring to this board for our enjoyment, and to get to know the artists behind their work. We hope you enjoy these features!

For our July spotlight we interviewed Shaiyeh!  

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'Bubbles Of Love' - a piece I made for the art collaboration I did with AnnaPommes in 2021

What kind of art and/or crafts do you do?

I do both digital and traditional art, in a bunch of different media and styles. I love watercolour the most, but I always end up mixing media, adding in things like coloured pencils, gouache and acrylics as I paint.

The two main categories of art I make is pony (of course ), and anime (a lot of genshin fanart), but I also do all kinds of other arts and crafts. I knit a lot, and design patterns (and host a small knitting podcast on youtube!), and I really enjoy spinning yarn, both on the wheel and using spindles.

I also like bullet journaling, especially when it comes to decorating. Kind of like scrapbooking.

Lately, I've been wanting to try out beading and UV resin. I love sewing and embroidery, but sadly it hurts my body, so I don't do it as often as I'd like.

I could go on for ages, I am constantly trying out new craftsy hobbies!

When did you first become interested in art and/or crafts? What brought you into MLP art in particular?

I've been drawing since I could hold a pen, pretty much! And it's just kind of stuck with me MLP art came naturally when I fell down the rabbit hole and started collecting way back in 2006. I usually end up drawing a lot based around my interests, so it just kind of happened very early on in my collecting journey. It was very g3 box art inspired back then, I don't really know how long it took for me to develop my own pony style.

Has your style, preferred media etc. changed along the way?

Oh, for sure! My style has evolved a lot over the years, as well as technique. Preferred media has definitely changed, too. I used to love making linearts with fine liners - I don't do it too much anymore. First of all, I've discovered I much more love coloured linearts, but I also have a reason that's a bit more sad, and that is the fact that it really hurts my hands. The way I make coloured linearts is slightly easier on my hands, and changing pens for different sections give opportunities to remember to stop and stretch!
I've used watercolour for a really long time, too, but I only started loving it a lot in the past few years, when I feel like my skills in it evolved a little.

I used to be big on digital art way back in time, but when my old tablet started falling apart, I lost the interest in it. It was just one big frustrating ordeal, so I pretty much quite for a couple of years, and started using ProMarkers a lot. I've since fallen back in love with digital art, and mostly quit markers. There are so many more options for tablets on the market now, and I finally found something to suit me, and it's been so much fun making art with it!

So basically, I go between watercolour and digital art these days

In what ways has your art improved over time? Where do you still see room for improvement?

In general, technique improves with practice and studying. I love learning and trying new things when it comes to art, and I find that to be very helpful for improvement. Even trying something completely different will help, because it might give you new inspiration, or a new angle or perspective on your main craft!

I definitely have areas that could do with improvement. Perspective and foreshortening is hard, anatomy is something you always need to (I feel like, at least) keep up with practicing.

The biggest thing I need to improve however - drawing and sketching more! I don't draw nearly as much as I would like to. 

What is your goal for this year (or 12 months from now)

To go with that last line of my last answer, short and simple: make more art!

I'm getting splints for my hand joints, so I will hopefully be able to actually draw more often with less pain, but I think I will need to retrain my drawing muscles for that, so I am setting a goal for a lot of just basic sketching, and having fun with it again.

I would also like to start selling my art - I have a lot of 'stock' printed and ready, but I haven't started actually selling.

Another goal would be to start posting the art I make again. It's healthy to create without needing to post it, but as an artist who does commissions and merch, it's kind of necessary! I'm awful with keeping up with posting online

What would you like to say to new, aspiring pony artists or someone who is still looking for encouragement to share their artwork?

My biggest tip: Have fun with what you make!
Don't get caught up in comparing to other online artists. I fall into this trap, too. Your sketchbook doesn't have to be aesthetic or instagrammable, you don't have to try the current *it* media or follow style trends - find what makes YOU happy in your creativity and explore!

When it comes to posting online - just go for it! Now is as good of a time as ever. I really love tiktok for posting (and finding!) art. If you're on instagram, reels are your friend if you want people to find your art.
(and again, don't compare yourself to other artists!)

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'Powder' - my most recent pony art, an ATC made for a swedish pony friend

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Stickers! I made this series of illustrations last year in sticker packs, magnetic bookmarks and little notepads.

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Everyone's favourite Halloween G3s

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Lastly, a pony-adjacent piece - a pegasus foal I painted for Equine April 2022 - a challenge I started, but sadly didn't have time to host this year. Next year, hopefully!

Thanks for the interview, Shai!