Interview with Dathie Digital Illustrator

Many of you like to admire beautiful works on facebook, Deviant art and many other sites, but all beauty has behind it lots of work an passion. I will ask Dathie , a very talented young lady how drawing became her passion and hope she would share some of her secrets with us. 

Animaboo: How you started drawing anime and for how long you do this ?

Dathie: I kinda just started doodling it in school, like I think friends introduced it and I was watching various anime on TV (pokemon..Yu-Gi-Oh..). so most of it was my just doodling in notepads up until I was about 16/17, then I got a graphics tablet and actually started taking it more seriously when I was about 17/18.

Animaboo: What techniques you use most of time ?

Dathie: I try to test out new techniques, but got into the habits of;

Backgrounds – entirely done in photoshop, majority of it being 1 layer. Edits, effects and foreground items take up more layers but I undertake different blend modes depending on the item (for example; magic will have outer glows and blend layers, but some leaves may just be blurred a little for depth of field)

Characters – done majorly in SAI, though I do sketching in clip studio with my own anatomy technique (which never stays the same!). line art is a bit messy, for me I just want it to connect, and colouring is mostly cell shade with some blending.

Overall, aside from the odd parts, most of what I do is with relatively basic brushes.

Animaboo: Do you like more to use programs and which ones are they , or you use pencils and markers?

Dathie: I use multiple programs, as said above I use Photoshop, paint tool SAI and also clip studio pro.

I have several traditional mediums as I like to experiment, but they are more to prolong my habits in notebook sketching.

Animaboo: How much time you spend every day drawing ?

Dathie: Hmm ranges, if I’m stuck on traditional, at most an hour. I have the mind of a squirrel

If its digital, I’m more patient and can go a couple hours at a time.

Animaboo: Does it take long to complete one of your beautiful pictures?

Dathie: last I recorded myself, about 7 hours. Average that I’d say between 7- 10 hours.

Animaboo: Are inspired by manga you read , anime you watch or you like to create characters of your own ?

Dathie: I’m more for original, I have 8 characters, to which I can probably say 4 of them were inspired by a select couple of games when I initially made them and named them to mark that. However I’ve since drifted from the original design and you’d never even guess where they originated!

Past that I don’t do much fanart, nor do I really watch or read much anime or manga. There’s the odd series I can commit to, but I think  I’ve become too hyper critical, I judge movies and find plot holes while my friends just sit in fascination of what they just saw.

 Animaboo: Would you like to draw your own manga story ? Or you already done that ?

Dathie: the day I stop altering the oc’s! I think it’d be cool to see them used in a game or manga or anime, I couldn’t do it, writing is far beyond what I can do. That said, I have my main characters well set and even in commission I like to see what others do with them.

Animaboo: What is your favorite character ?

Dathie: of mine? My mascot, you probably don’t need a name since nearly every other picture is of her! She got my name when I made her (I’m not going to list my excuses I’ll just hide in the corner) I like her most because I’ve always been one for magic and stars, and she’s the one I assigned it all to!!

In regards to anime, I’m not sure I have one! I kinda like pick my favorites from series, but I don’t have the whole: You are my whole life!!!!!
so a few are;

Galaxy angels; Vanilla

Pokemon; May

Diabolik lovers; Kanato ß I want no questions as to how I found this series, or why I bothered watching, but lets just say, that character was the least boring!

Animaboo:  In the end , what would you like to tell to your fans and people just starting to draw ?

Dathie: have fun! Draw what you like, and if you want to tackle improvement, analyse your weakest areas and focus on them. Also try new things and be daring occasionally. If your in a rut, call out for some feedback, but be willing to take it!

If you would like to admire and support more of her work you can check her work on :

Deviant art :  dathie  dathie.deviantart.gallery 

Pixiv :  dathie /  id9344809
Or follow her on Instagram : dathie_duck