Interview with the winner of Derby 14
FableFire is another new artist who has caught the collective fancy of the derby voters. Her "Afterlife nap" and similar "All hallow's sleep" in the last 2 derbies placed very well. Now she has her first derby win with "Say no to scurvy". Here's our interview with her.
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
#11 (Cryptozoology) / n00b / 0. My brother had been trying to get me to enter for a few weeks and I finally gave it a go. That was back when I was a young, naive derby-ist, as I submitted it late Monday night. Oops. Now Thursday nights are officially "Derby Night" for me.
What are you tools of choice?
I'm a big fan of pen, pencil, and paper (usually on the back of homework). On the digital side I use a
Wacom Intuos2 (6x8) with
Photoshop and
Open Canvas. Currently working on a Dell XPS2 laptop, but slowly switching over to a custom tower of power. I'm sad to report that the laptop is in some serious need of repair and TLC.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
Regardless of what type of design, I think about what I'd like to see as a consumer - unique, witty, stylish, etc. I mean, if I wouldn't want it, I definitely don't expect anyone else to. For the derby shirts in particular, I try to think of a design that will both stand out and capitalize on my artwork. I like to marry cute design with morbid ideas, which is how "Say no to scurvy" came about. After that I quickly sketch out the idea before it escapes into the dark recesses of my brain, and work on the details from there.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
My design experience is summed up by about seven years of web design. As for the art, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. It started out by copying illustrations in children's books, and grew into more complex illustrations of photos and real life. Eventually I got into anime, and my art skills degraded from there. I'm entirely self-taught.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I wouldn't mind doing art/design full time, provided the material was something that I was interested in - preferably something music or video game related.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
I plan to sell some of my losing t-shirt designs after the 60 day limit is over, though I haven't decided on a vendor yet.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
1) Design what you like and have fun with it. Even if the design loses, at least you had fun. If you liked it, you can always sell it elsewhere after 60 days. Trying to design specifically for the woot market is tough, stressful, and usually a fruitless venture.
2) Take critiques as a gift and don't feed the forum trolls.
3) Submit your design(s) as early as you can. This maximizes the exposure for your designs, and also gives plenty of time for feedback.
