Kari
This month's Featured Artist, Kari, has won the honor with only 58
pictures—a tiny number compared to the prodigious output of some
other artists, but certainly no less artistically significant. This is
because each of Kari's pictures is a fully rendered, lusciously realized
piece of digital art with shading, a background, and a well-thought-out
character portrait pose that indicates that a lot of effort and care has
gone into each piece.
     |
In the Artist's Own Words:
| “ | Hnn *thinks about a unique and ultimate opening*.. *fails* xD
Okay first off thank you all who voted for me!! This is so awesome! You make me feel like being something special x3 I haven't drawn at all for a very long time before I joined the TLKFAA. It was when I just randomly searched for "lion king" in Google 1 1/2 years ago that I found TLKFAA. And I got so inspired by the fanart here (and the fact that fans drew that :O) that I tried to do lion king fanart myself. So I was a real beginner in art and especially in PC coloring when I started here. I don't know what made me think I would be actually good in drawing. I've seen many good fanarts from other fandoms before but when I saw them I never thought about drawing pictures myself. The art here in TLKFAA is really something special :3 And I also saw that the people here are so nice and friendly. I joined because I wanted to be a part of this great community! And because I love TLK very much :3 TLKFAA will always have a high rank for me. I wonder where I would be without it! I probably wouldn't even have "discovered" my interest in art and being an artist myself. I try to upload many canon pictures to my gallery. I guess that's why you voted for me :3 I've always been really impressed how Disney's character designers made these lions look so special and unique! I just love the style they used and how they placed the markings. I also like the colors in the movies *___* And I love all the different characters ^__^ I don't have many pics in my gallery yet. That's because I'm really slow at drawing %) I spend lots of time on each picture because I believe that quality is more important than quantity. It's not that I'm exhausted when I finished a picture but I always take my time. I even relax while I'm drawing because I use it as a balance between my RL job and my free-time xD Also there is something I'd like to suggest: Don't force yourself to draw! If you just don't feel like drawing then take a break (unless you got paid for it xP) The best pictures are those drawn with inspiration. Nobody will kill you if you don't upload for a while. Sounds like a weird suggestion maybe, but you'll see in the aftermath you'll be able to do better art. The worst thing that could happen is that your hobby stresses you while it should actually be something you enjoy and do for fun. Uuuh, that's a long speech :O I should learn to cut to the chase xD I'm sure I forgot 1,000,000 things that I would rather like to say than this babbling above xD But I'm quite out of thoughts now .__. Again thanks so much for making me an AotM! And thanks to Brian for being an awesome admin! I love you all ^o^ |
” |
   |
Kari's sense for appealing character expressions serves her well in her character design efforts. Tackling such diverse species as clouded leopards and creatively-colored cheetahs, as well as displaying an impressive range of distinctive character designs within the world of lionesses and lions, she has developed most of her art through character portraits and art trades for others, rendering their created characters in her own distinctively attractive way. Her experience with her non-TLK-related art on DeviantArt allows her to develop a wide variety of character styles and work with many other artists whose inspiration comes from sources other than The Lion King; she then brings those skills over to this Archive to fulfill the creative inspirations of the community here, while suffering no pressure to stray off-topic. This results in a lot of really good canon art from Kari, stemming from a real desire to keep this site focused on its primary mission, and a welcome demonstration of just how much fun and how engaging—and inspiring—keeping within the site's boundaries of on-topic content can be.
Kari's suggestion that artists not push themselves is well advised; when your goal is to produce high-quality art rather than to show off every sketch you create (which of course is not to suggest that sketches are somehow inappropriate—it's just a difference in artistic style, whether you want to only display the finished, polished products, or also to exhibit the quickie pencil or tablet sketches that often develop into much larger works), it's key to stay inspired. Nothing can be more draining to an artist than a project that isn't "clicking", that just drags on and turns into drudge work. If you can keep your interest level up, and if the way you have to do that is to reduce your output level so you're not forcing yourself to create when you don't feel the inspiration to do so... then don't. A small amount of high-quality, inspired work can get you all the kudos you could want, including the Featured Artist of the Month honor, as Kari illustrates.
Congratulations!