Arterview: Tatsumaki
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Ever since the start of Smogon, anyone who's felt the need to share their art has previously needed to go through the forums where they could set up an art thread of their own, or to head into the #smeargle channel on IRC and ask for live feedback. But as time progressed, Pokémon Showdown! became not only Smogon's main place for simulated Pokémon battles but also a social meeting place for all members of the community, including the artists. One artist who has contributed beautiful artwork to Smogon but has also become well acquainted with Pokémon Showdown is Tatsumaki, so let's learn more about her, shall we?
Bummer
You're an artist who has gradually made herself more known around both Smogon and PS alike, but for those who have yet to meet you, how would you introduce yourself?
Tatsumaki
Hi, I'm Tatsumaki (Formerly SailorCosmos, which is how I tag all my work), and I'm a 16-year-old American hobbyist. I enjoy drawing, playing music, writing, and surfing the interwebs to find memes.
Bummer
Short and concise. What does the "hobbyist" part involve? Is it strictly the artistic side we've seen from around our parts, or do you have other interests associated with that?
Tatsumaki
Well, I've been on and off drawing for quite a while now. I started in late 2014 with digital art, but most of my art experience before that was doodling in my notebooks for school, to my teacher's dismay.
Bummer
Nothing wrong with that. I, too, share that origin.
Tatsumaki
I enjoy art more as a hobby, since it allows me to learn and gain experience on my own terms and from what I love seeing and doing.
Bummer
What's your approach to improving your own art? I know for a fact that you don't stray from trying out new things if it means becoming better as an artist, but some artists don't always know what to do in order to improve, so your angle would be nice to hear.
Tatsumaki
Honestly, I think a lot of art skill is about seeing the world around you, really seeing it, and conveying it in ways that are interesting and unique. I think "seeing" art is more important than "doing" art, but both work in tandem to make great artwork.
Art is kind of a relationship between the reality and the projection, and some people could benefit from learning more about the reality, and some from learning more about the projection. Even pure fantasy takes its cues from reality, and if you find yourself making very realistic work that is somewhat boring to look at, you can study from a huge number of sources, some of which you'd never even have thought of!
I enjoy watching films, cartoons, anime, and video games; each of these mediums have an artistic quality to them, which can both inform and influence your artwork. Some of my favorite influences are the works of film directors like Wes Anderson and even Zack Snyder.
Bummer
And one of those video games is Pokémon, I presume. What made you interested in those games?
Tatsumaki
Honestly, I think that it's the entire "video game osmosis" idea. I've always been a Nintendo fangirl and my favorite video game series is Zelda. You can't be a fan of a Nintendo game without at least hearing of Zelda, and all my friends had Pokémon Diamond or Pearl. I started out with a used copy of Pokémon FireRed I bought for five dollars from one of my acquaintances in the schoolyard, and it really started from there!
Bummer
What starter did you pick?
Tatsumaki
In FireRed? Charizard, of course.
Classic.
Bummer
Are your fond memories of conquering Kanto part of the reason why you ended up on Smogon, along with Pokémon Showdown?
Tatsumaki
Yeah, they pretty much are. I first discovered Smogon in 2011 when I wanted some analysis for a Pokémon moveset, but I generally drifted away from Pokémon and competitive metagames in general.
However, I saw a classmate playing Showdown at school in early 2014, and, the following year, I became a Showdown Art room regular! From the Art room, I began to explore the rest of both Smogon and PS and made a good group of friends.
Bummer
Has the Art room been a beneficial influence to you?
Tatsumaki
Yeah, I think the Art room is the reason I got back into digital art at all. I'd say that allowing me to show my work, get critique, and, more importantly, see and critique other people's work is what really influenced me to try my hand at the whole Pokémon art thing. I also enjoy having friends who I know are into the same things as me, and knowing that we can discuss things from a similar perspective and even collaborate and have fun together.
Bummer
We often get users who wonder how to best get into the PS community, do you have any advice to offer on that?
Tatsumaki
Hm, I'd say that the PS community can be kind of open in general, but I'd first start off by just jumping into a conversation with something unique or your opinion on a topic that's being discussed. The nature of a chatboard like PS and its rooms is that everyone is invited to talk, and the only enemy to that is when you speak and people don't listen! For this, I recommend picking a board that doesn't have all that many regular users and really getting to know their users.
Beware, though! This might end up becoming your "home" during all the time you spend on the site. I personally started off in the Smash Bros. room before joining the Art room. While I rarely join Smash Bros. anymore, I can't go a day without visiting the people of art. What you end up doing can surprise you!
Bummer
Apart from becoming more rooted in the Art room, you're also involved in other parts of PS, like with the simulator itself. Anything you'd like to share about that?
Tatsumaki
Showdown is one of the websites I think is really easy to get immersed in, with unlimited potential for battling and several thousand users in dozens of rooms. I took an interest in contributing to the whole system, and I've spent quite some time making graphics for the move animations! Users will notice the new appearance of things like Spikes and Webs, and I've got even more planned for the future!
Bummer
The upgraded effects have certainly caught my eye, so it's nice to meet one of the people making them happen.
Tatsumaki
Yeah, it's a lot of fun to see how people like those and to also know how I can improve.
Bummer
Do you regularly battle, or is that purely an activity on the side?
Tatsumaki
Honestly, most of the times I battle nowdays are when I accidentally click the battle button, am checking out a new meta, or am challenged by one of my friends. Battling isn't really one of my hobbies, but I do enjoy it when I have a chance.
Bummer
Do you have other plans in store for the future, or will you be keep doing with what you've got right now?
Tatsumaki
I think, for the time being, I'm rather happy with how things are going. I don't really have any major plans to change, but you never know where life will take you...
Sage words to live by.
Bummer
Since you're "just" a hobbyist, what are your current ideas, or even plans, for your future profession?
Tatsumaki
While I've considered art as a profession, I've kind of thought it through, and I've come to the realization that I enjoy freelancing too much to be tethered down by doing what I love for my job. They say "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life," but I think this might take on a much more ominous meaning for certain professions, one of which, sadly, happens to be art. That's not to say, however, that I think taking a job in the art industry is a bad idea or anything; I think it's a wonderful option that I just don't think is right for me.
As for what I want to do, hmm... I guess I could always become a lawyer...
Bummer
And now for the final climax of this interviews: what's your favorite Pokémon?
Tatsumaki
Hmm, I'd say Giratina. Since I played Diamond seriously, it was my "Mewtwo." When I picked up FireRed and LeafGreen, I didn't really have the patience to finish the games before I got sidetracked by getting the newer and prettier Diamond. Giratina was such a mystery! It wasn't on the boxart until several years later, it appeared at the very end of the game, and it seemed to be much cooler than his time/space counterparts, to boot!
Bummer
Even the underdog deserves some love. Thanks for accepting the interview!
Tatsumaki has been known for a long time as an eager artist ready to help out, be it illustrating articles close to deadlines or creating fashionable images for Facebook submissions. Like many artists, she aims towards a more realistic feel to the otherwise cartoonic animals that Pokémon are usually portrayed as, and thus she pays a lot of attention to the lighting in each of her works, as well as using colors to her advantage, rather than just using dark lineart.
However, considerable skill is required to pull off this style well, and while Tatsumaki certainly has what it takes, her work falls a little short in certain ways. For one, several of her works could benefit from having some extra time spent on them to fix smaller issues. These include odd reflections, minor perspective issues, and in general improving the painting by adding smaller details and refining the brushwork so that you don't get the impression that the image was rushed. And considering that she's still a fairly fresh artist, she can definitely gain from getting a deeper understanding of both human and animal anatomy to perfect the dynamic poses she tends to portray.
That said, Tatsumaki is a positive person who's eager to improve, and she undoubtedly will if she keeps up with her art interest. If you wanna be part of Pokémon Showdown as well, just come on by, and make sure to drop in the Art room while you're at it!
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