[Narutomania's Interview Thread] LMP

[~acadia]

Alright guys, we haven't had any traditional artists interviewed, so Avan and I figured I should interview LMP (seeing as how shes AMAZING and stuff). LMP has a very organic and natural style of drawing, and she's been an inspiration to myself personally, and many others on this forum. This isn't quite as long as the last interview, but I think it shows a lot about the LMP we all know and love.

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-How long have you been a member of NM?

I just checked my join date, and it says January 12, 2004. So 3 years now D: I feel like my childhood has gone to waste, in a way, lol. o tempora o mores!

-Now you're one of the few artists on the site that uses mainly traditional techniques and means. You're not a 'GFXer' per se, but you definitely make a huge contribution to this forum. Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hmmmm well first, I still get mistaken for a guy even though I've been here for a while, so let's just get this out of the way: I'm a girl. i live in Canada, but I'm originally from Taiwan. I've just finished my first year in university where I will be majoring in Communication and Media Studies, which is also ironically my lowest mark out of all my courses from this year. I like dogs and flowers and walks in the snow. If you know me you probably know that I have an incredible obsession with a lot of really stupid girly things, which I go on rampages about on a regular basis, mostly RPGs. Also this is the possibly one of the darkest thing about my hobbies but I actually have approximately 20GB of BL (read: yaoi manga stuff) on my harddrive right now. Despite much retarded fangirling I am still considered by many people to be more male than half the males we know in a few ways *glances in Kam's direction

I like a lot of things and people. I want a lot of things (and people). I don't really have a life

-When and how did you discover the world of art?

My mother is a painter, so I grew up with a lot of art all around me. I didn't really draw anything for myself until I got into Gundam Wing at around age 11 or 12 and started trying to draw fanarts of Duo Maxwell, who remains one of my favourite anime characters of all times. I built really stupid geocities sites to host my art and fawned over a lot of people. Then I went to high school where I got into an arts program and drew all sorts of crap for that for 4 years while vigorously drawing anime and cartoons on the side the whole time, which I posted to many art places and embarrassed the crap out of myself, such as on Deviantart and a few other galleries. And that leads us up to now, where I still post my art to many art places and embarrass the crap out of myself.

-What inspires you to draw?

Oh man I've gotten this question a million times but I never really know how to answer it. I'm inspired by a lot of things, including the usual suspects, such as music (generally game OSTs) and other artists or writers, or games... you know, media. I'm a classicist so I am inspired by a lot of greek art and also people I admire from a very.... academic level, such as a lot of renaissance thinkers and baroque painters. I wouldn't really call "ideas" inspirations, but I can say that a lot of the time I'll just be sitting around and an idea would just hit me and I would quickly just start to draw it. It's like a tagging system, where I might look at a bottle and this image of some dude drinking out of a bottle would pop into my head and I would have to draw it, and then that may lead to another "tag" and then another and so on.

-Do you intend to make an effort to improve? Or are you content with your current skill level?

This question actually made me laugh because I am honestly never NOT making an effort to improve. I push myself in art harder than anything else, which is kind of pathetic. I am in fact very VERY unhappy with my art all the time, not because I think it's bad, because I don't think it's BAD, but I never seem to be able to achieve what I want to achieve in my work, and I try very VERY hard in everything I draw to make my ideal of "my art" happen. Of course it hasn't happened yet so I'm still trying. I think this is pretty evident in how I never finish anything and instead move onto something new all the time. When I look back at art done even just half a year ago I can see a pretty large gap in terms of CG style (the one thing I struggle with the most) because I constantly change it to see if the next style I force onto my work would work with me better than the last.

-Your drawings have a very natural flow to them, is there anything you do in particular to achieve that look? Any advice to give to aspiring artists?

I pick up a pencil and I drag it around the page. No really, I actually get a lot of people asking me how I get my lines to look so organic, and to be honest, I don't know. This is like asking me what I do to act the way I do or think the way I think. I don't try to make my drawings look "flowy" or whatever and I actually try to stiffen my work so that it's not so sketchy. So really I have no idea D: Advice, eh? For artists who want to draw anime: DO NOT NOT NOT NOT NOTTTTTTT LOOK AT THOSE "HOW TO DRAW MANGA" BOOKS. At least not until you've had a good foundation in regular drawing. Because the art in there is atrocious and it doesn't reallly help you establish good foundations and would seem confusing unless you know how to draw from life first. If you can't even draw what you see, how can you draw something in your head properly?

-How did you find out about NM and what prompted you to start posting works of art?

I actually came to NM along with the Liberty people, like TMK and KaM and NeoEnigma and X2thaU (though my memory fails so I could be wrong, lol) when we migrated over from NF because the GFX section there failed miserably due to a certain mod. I actually started posting art because people told me to, and also because I didn't want to be around an on a GFX team (way back when teams actually battled other teams and stuff) when i didn't really contribute in any way.

-When you started posting up your drawings, did a lot of people support and help you, as in giving comments critiques and supplying knowledge (tutorials/advice)?

I'm guessing you mean on NM, so I'll just talk about NM. I remember the first time I posted art on NM, Kakashi was one of the first to reply and he would randomly drop in on my art-battle threads to vote for me once in a blue moon, and other people would leave comments like "KAKAHI'S VOTE = 10 VOTES IN ONE" and it would make me feel approved and wonderful without actually being constructive in anyway. The great thing about posting art among a bunch of GFX'ers is that while they don't always offer help on HOW TO DRAW, they're awesome at picking out what's wrong, visually or atmospherically or anatomically or whatever, and pointing it out to me without trying to sugarcoat it like a lof of artists on DA do. And for me that works, because otherwise how the hell would I know I need to make shoulders wider or shift one eye lower than the other or anything? I do think that I got off light in terms of critique and stuff because no one ever tore me a part like a really shitty gfx'er would get torn apart upon posting something completely mediocre. The same people would also always help me brainstorm or decide on something if I post WIPs asking for help. I LOVE YOU ALL.

-What do you think of NM nowadays?

Since I never leave the GFX section I can't speak for the rest of the forum, but find that it's a lot less "art oriented" here these days. People still post tags and stuff but we'd rather make stupid threads in the spam forum and just joke around like idiots, which I love anyway, so I'm not going to complain XD It would be really nice to see people take GFX as 'seriously' as they did just 2 years ago but what with getting into college and stuff I guess it can't be helped.

-Do you also go to other forums and if so, what forum would you recommend other artists here at NM?

I don't frequent at any other forums, but conceptart.org is a great place to visit for professional and amateur concept work. Many professional concept artists for game developers post their work in progresses or step by steps or things that didn't get picked up by their companies and it's great to see scenes and stuff from games like Prince of Persia that didn't get included in the game. I drop in once in a while to just cry over how fucking amazingly talented and genius people over there are.

-Thanks for agreeing to do this, LMP! =]

This would be a selection of my favorite LMP pieces (man LMP! It's hard to find FINISHED pieces by you... =P):

LUCY-XY : mpd psycho by ~lawnmowerpants on deviantART


The Story of the Youths Who by ~lawnmowerpants on deviantART


dinohiba : reborn by ~lawnmowerpants on deviantART

And actually, I've always really loved this piece:

yes sir how may i help you : by ~lawnmowerpants on deviantART

LMP also has a website: LAUNDRY

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For more questions about GFX I refer you to the Tutorial section here:
http://www.narutomania.com/forums/graphics-tutorials/
Esp. the Help Thread might be the thing for you! (compare it with the homework thread in the General Section)

Other interviews:
[Narutomania's Interview Thread] ~acadia
[Narutomania's Interview Thread] Cycliodbeta
[Narutomania's Interview Thread] .ceyx
[Narutomania's Interview Thread] Fenox
[Narutomania's Interview Thread] X2thaU
[Narutomania's Interview Thread] DarkDays

[Farre]

damn, LMP was the first person I saw draw on the internetz :O everytime I see her drawings I get amazed as the first time I saw her art.

Eventhou you aint avalantis, acadia. It was a great read as all the other interviews .

[Atem]

Nice interview. D: LMP and her art are great.

I demand a Kam interview next.

[Akuma]

well I just love LMP pieces, she got really nice drawnings and I really dig her style...good interwiev

[X2thaU]

and sweet my name is mentioned

[Century Slayer]

No doubt one of the best on these forums, nice read.

[LONGTIME]

Oooh nice. LMP happens to be one of my favorite, if not my favorite artist on NM.

[poony]

haha soo didnt expect lmp to be the next interviewee but still a very good read.


and +10 points for fangirl'n gundam wing.

[Epoxy]

Loving it Lawny.

[oreka]

absolutely great.

LMP's style is so unique and absolutely fascinating.
every time i see your stuff, lmp, i wish i could get into drawing. (due to me being absolutely not talented that wont ever happen though)

[.Kaos]

Finished pieeeeces, OMG, *demands a moment of silence*

I love you both, thx for the interview Acadia and LMP
And you gotta finish moar you know?

[Epoxy]

Lucy-XY lemme avatar it.

[fieldy3000]

excellent interview.
definitely one of the best artists on NM.

(I don't get how I missed this piece but still +fav)

[San Goku]

Don't have run around for other interviews

[Drak]

there aren't a lot of traditional artists here on nm so it's nice to have a good one like lmp to look up to and interviewed.

[EndlessRain]

Originally Posted by lmp

I like a lot of things and people. I want a lot of things (and people).

lol
luv luv your work
nice interview a and lmp

[carbonmix]

I love LMP because seriously, I founded the LMP fanclub, no?

yayyyyyyy!!!!

[Æble]

This is the first interview i actually finished reading...

LMP <3 your work.

[Yuurei]

nice interview