satoshi-san1 asked: Hey I have a question for you bara. How do you do the lineart on your pieces? Do you use the pen tool in adobe illustrator or do you use a tablet and ink them in photoshop?
tablet + photoshop all the way, i can’t illustrate in illustrator (ha ha) to save my life. for illustrations i also prefer a slightly more organic look than ultra-smooth precise curves…sometimes i draw and ink on toothy paper and scan that in to color
nerii-san asked: Hey I'm getting pretty far into art, and I've always enjoyed your artwork. I was wondering if you had any advice toward where to learn how to advance in digital and traditional art more? I've bought a couple of art books and I was wondering if you had any personal favorites, even places online that you may have picked up tips. Thank you :)
thanks! to be honest, i’ve never relied very heavily on books or tutorials for art techniques; most of what i know is stuff i’ve learned on my own via trial and error over the years. whenever i tried out a new program or a new set of art supplies, i’d always do some trial doodles first to test everything out and get a feel for what they were capable of, then i’d apply them to a finished piece and refine the process from there. keep experimenting and keep practicing, and good luck!
raefuun asked: I know this is a weird question but... where in the world did you get that adorable white bear pencil sharpener (in the background of the Yukiko photo)? Ty in advance! ^^
haha! i bought it from a local gift shop. i don’t recall the company name or anything from the package, i just remember it was korean…sorry i couldn’t be more helpful!
whatthepatrick asked: Hi, Bara! I've been a fan of your art for years, and I have a quick question for you. I'd like to open commissions, but as a full time thing. But! I’ve never done them before and I have no idea what I'm doing. Do you have any advice on how to go about it and what I might possibly need as far as taxes? Thank you!♥
hmm! i guess first and foremost i’d say, don’t overestimate yourself. you can always take on more work once you’ve completed your previous commissions, but taking on too many and then attempting to get through them while fending off angry customers is a shitty experience and can potentially damage your reputation.
also, don’t underprice yourself! i know this is a tough one because there’s no standard rulebook of pricing (well, the GAG’s handbook exists, but it’s hard to apply to some situations) and there are a lot of hobby artists online that charge very little. but: if you know you can deliver professional work, then you can feel more confident about charging higher prices. keep in touch with your clients, provide updates often, let your clients approve each step of the art or ask for revisions (within reason — you want them to be happy with the work they’re paying for, but you also can’t allow the occasional jerk client to take advantage of you for lots of freebies,) work at 300 DPI so you can provide prints or printable files at the end, etc.
DEFINITELY read up on legal rights and contracts if you haven’t done so already. there’s the aforementioned handbook, and also this. you probably won’t need contracts for most personal commissions, and most companies that know what they’re doing will have existing agreements for you to sign for professional work, but it never hurts to have your own contract written up, just in case
also: you don’t need to kill yourself doing your very very best on every commission you accept, but you do need to at least deliver the quality shown in your examples, as that is what your customers will expect from you. so, as tempting as it may be, it may not be wise to choose your absolute best work for your examples; choose images with a quality you know you can deliver consistently. if you end up delivering better than that, great!
as for taxes, save everything! obviously any records of payment from commissions, but also receipts for any business expenses (art supplies, printing costs, etc.) if nothing else, save any 1099s you get from companies you’ve worked for and report those accurately.
best of luck! 
meownyo asked: hi Bara-chan <3 firstly I am in love with everything you make! you seriously like the best thing since sliced bread. Moving away from the bread subject, I was wondering if I can approach you with some questions? the first one was, how did you get your career in Gaiaonline? and is there any tips on starting out? I want to hopefully one day be either an illustrator such as yourself or a comic artist but even after years of practise I feel no good. lastly, for curiosity, who are your fav artists
thank you! i do like bread a lot (three words for fellow southerners: PUBLIX WHITE MOUNTAIN. omgh) so this is a pretty great compliment
a bunch of my friends work for gaia, and one of them in particular kept bugging me to join them, so about a year ago i sent in my resume and that seems to have worked
don’t get discouraged, it takes a lot of time to improve :] devote as much time as you can to practicing, experimenting, and pushing yourself to learn new things. it might help to hang out in some sort of active artist community (i used to frequent oekaki boards and paint chats, although i am old and they are possibly outdated by now) to keep you inspired and motivated — just try not to fall into the “everything i draw must be PERFECT so i can post it without worry” mindset, it used to cause stagnation and art blocks for me. good luck!
my favorite artists…are hard to narrow down and i’m sure i’m forgetting a bunch, but: adam hughes, gomoku akatsuki, ugetsu hakua, alphonse mucha, nobuteru yuki
littledeerfaline asked: sorry, my last message bugged out on my phone :( I wanted to say i really enjoyed your fashion challenge images and it seems like you are pretty stylin'! would you ever consider an 'outfit of the day' kind of thing?
ahh thank you! sure, i could do this (if you guys wouldn’t mind a million more self-portraits…) 
nadjina asked: What do you use to ink traditionally to keep the lines from smearing when you colour???
copic multiliners and kuretake brush pens
in the past, i’ve used sakura pigma microns, which also work very nicely!
leckz asked: hey bara! i was just wondering, as i'm sure you have a lot of experience—any opinions on the best place to get art prints done online? thanks so much!
my favorite places for prints are iprintfromhome and catprint :] catprint is perfect if you need stuff cheaper and/or in larger quantities, and ipfh does very high quality photo prints and can mount them beautifully for galleries and wall art and such.
kizzness asked: I suppose this isn't really a question as much as it is a comment. I am a HUGE fan of your work, and whenever I need to be reminded to keep trying, I need a smile, or just want to bask in some awesome, I stare at your work. Your style is so fresh, fun and... well you! I just wanted to share, is all. So, thank you for sharing your WIPs and finished images about the net :D
aww, it’s wonderful to hear that my work inspires you, and i’m happy to share it! thanks so much 
kurostudios asked: Hey Bara~ I often see you post images with Japanese written on them. How good is your 日本語?
oh…my japanese is pretty awful haha! i never had the opportunity to learn it formally, it was something i picked up bits and pieces of in my spare time, so all i really know are kana, some kanji, and a handful of words and particles and things. most of the time i have to use a translator to fill in the gaps 
