baratelier

risspittman asked: I am incredibly impressed by how "alive" your work is. It always seems to have movement and life to it, and your drawings are so dynamic. I am really bad at that and my images always look rather static and lifeless. I've been following your work since you were drawing Sonic FC's in the 00's and your work has gotten so much more dynamic over the years since then. Was this a conscious improvement? Do you have any tips or suggestions? THanks! I LOVE your work. ♥

thank you!! i’m glad to hear that you think my work has so much life to it, it is something i strive for. there was a period of time where i think maybe i focused on “good anatomy” and technical correctness in my art a little too much, and i found myself feeling like my work had become stiff and stale as a result, and i missed some of my older work, deformed as it was — at least it was more interesting!
not that trying to improve your anatomy skills is a bad thing in itself, but…it’s very hard to take risks and be truly creative if you’re preoccupied with making your work bulletproof. a few years ago, i started looking at more work outside of the anime/manga/comic circles — stuff that was a lot more freeform, not just idealized figures in perfectly painted scenes. it resonated with me a lot more, and inspired me to learn some graphic design basics, focus on composition and each picture as a whole rather than zeroing in on making each feature perfect, push my stylization more instead of worrying about my subjects holding up to real world physics, and so on. it’s been liberating! so i guess it shows in my work a little C:

i guess tl;dr: seek out totally new influences and don’t be afraid to experiment until you figure out what makes YOU happy!

i don’t know if my experiences are relevant to your own at all, but i do wish you the best of luck with your work!

screamingcolor asked: Agh, I'm so glad you're still so active on the internet~ I first saw your work 11 years ago and even then you were awesome and showed lots of talent ;w; thank you so much for being so amazing~

wow, 11 years! thanks so much for keeping up with my work, and hopefully i can keep posting new things for many years to come :]

burniikay asked: do you have a faq page?

i do now! right here — it’s kind of a jumble of text for now, maybe i can pretty it up later…

there are also FAQs on my website and dA, though some parts of them are slightly outdated by now

fabiring asked: You must have read this a billion times, but I practically grew up with your art. I was an avid RO player when I was around 12 years old (I'm 21 now) and I absolutely love it, even after all those years! Thanks for keeping it fresh, it really shows you love what you do! Best of luck! xo

aww thanks, i’m so glad you still find my work interesting after all this time! <3 it’s always a nice thing to hear c: best of luck to you too!

peepsypenk asked: Hi bara! I admire so much your work, specially that last one :) Is it on sale? Will you do a print version of the original for the small pockets? :Thank you so much!!

thanks so much! i’m guessing you mean the yukiko piece? (sorry, i am so slow at responding to messages!) the original is for sale here, but i plan on making prints this year as well

daliciously asked: wooaaah Baraa? The Bara from Dezy Oekaki board and Saka's? I remember you! You had this cute style and now it even became greater :D Soo cool to see!! (my name was Hino Ai back then)

ahh yes! thank you so much :’) it’s always good to run into old kapolo club members, i hope you’ve been well!

ai-risa asked: Gosh that Yukiko drawing you've been working on is gorgeous! Can I ask if you have any plans to sell prints of it? I'd love to buy the original but I'd never be able to afford it XD

thank you! :D i do plan on having prints of it made sometime soon, yes!

tygurstar asked: Hey Bara, Long time follower of your work, I'm very much inspired by you! I am looking to making my own art a full time job and have been taking commissions semi-regularly for years now. What I'm unsure about is how to properly pay my taxes on art income. I've been doing my best and so far so good, but have you got any advice on it? Also do you recommend going to conventions regularly? They seem somewhat expensive to go to. Cheers and thanks! ~Ty

thank you so much! i’m a little insecure about offering financial advice because i tend to have no idea what i’m doing, but i’ve been thinking about using outright and they have this page that explains everything better than i can :)

conventions…it depends, i’d say? if there are any local to you, definitely give those a shot since you won’t be paying out the ass just to get there. for anything out of state, i’d recommend looking at attendance numbers, general costs, etc and asking other artists who have sold there what their experiences have been like; every con is different (and can vary from year to year, even)

of course, if you can find other (and importantly, trustworthy) people to split hotel and maybe even transportation costs with, that helps a ton!! so does collabing with other artists and splitting printing/material/etc costs

overall i’d say try it out, start kinda small and with a buddy if possible, see if it works for you…and if so, work your way up from there. best of luck!

chryssixx asked: Hi, Hi! I was wondering if you could show a picture of your workspace? I really like seeing other artist's work areas, it's an inspiration. I love your art BTW.

thank you! i don’t have any recent photos and it’s too dark to take one today, but here’s an older pic

c-runic asked: Hi barachan, I've been a fan of your work for a while now and see you as one of my inspirations. I just graduated from high school and I'm looking into attending college. I love drawing and would like to attend an art school but so many seem too expensive. I was wondering what it was like for you, as a self-taught artist, starting and continuing your art career.

thank you so much! i totally feel you, money was one of the biggest reasons i didn’t go to college — my parents didn’t have the means to send me, so between attempting to learn on my own or taking out student loans, i took the cheap route, lol. i don’t regret it, but i do have to say that with doing stuff on your own, there’s always that “am i doing this right? i have no way to be sure” worry underlying everything…or maybe i’m just super insecure. i’m also jealous of everyone who got to make tons of friends in art school haha ;;

ANYWAY, i hope you don’t mind, but i’m going to link you to a previous post i made about starting my career, i hope it can be of some use to you! best of luck with your work and career