Thread "Round 6: Drasnus interviews Pastel of ELO and others!" in forum "Interviews"

Posted at 3:03PM, Mar. 13, 2009

This interview is of Pastel, whose comics are ELO and others!
(interview conducted by Drasnus!)

(skoolmunkee note: I am guessing the L's and J's are faces that word somehow mangled.)

So, Pastel. Tell us about yourself. What kind of person are you?

Well, Iâ€™m currently 19 years old. I really like to draw, like most people here, and draw comics and such. I get tired of things easily sometimes though so I take lots of breaks.
People tend to say Iâ€™m friendly and nice. So thatâ€™s cool. J

Who has inspired you? Your favourite books, films and comics?

Iâ€™ve always loved CLAMPâ€™s art style. It was the first drawing style I actively sought to emulate and got me to where I am today. J
As for those other things, one of my favorite types of movie or book or comic has to be fantasy. Stories with elements of magic are the most fun and interesting for me since thatâ€™s what I grew up reading and watching.

How would you describe your comics? What are you going for?

I think above all else, my comics are really light-hearted. One of my goals for ELO especially was to make as simple a plot outline as possible. Sometimes I feel like reading simple stories without any politics or death or drama, and I think other people might enjoy the same. J

When did you start making comics and what influenced you to do so?

In 2007, I was very set on improving my drawing and coloring style as much as possible.

Your main comic, ELO, concerns aliens living among humans. Is there anything that inspired you when making this?

ELO was a story I had written for my Spanish 2 class assignment titled Luisa y los Extraterrestres. The boys were inspired by two of my best guy friends. My thoughts at the time centered on making my story as easy as possible to translate into Spanish.
Later, when I decided to make a comic, I was unsure of how dedicated I would be so I chose to test-run my alien story. It already had characters and a plot, so it made the start-up really easy.

Your character Lila is very quirky, is she based on anyone?

You could say sheâ€™s based on my opposite. When I made her, I had learned that working with characters that you donâ€™t like or that are unlike yourself forces you to be more creative and interesting regarding that characterâ€™s actions. I have to admit, I thought she was annoying in the beginning, but sheâ€™s grown on me and I love drawing her lately.

You have a couple of other comics, Sailor Soldiers Of Justice and Pounklaz V. Care to tell us about them?

SSOJ was a spur of the moment comic that kitty17x and I drew on an oekaki board. She drew a picture of Sailor Moon, then I responded with a picture of Mars, and it continued like that for about 100 pictures over the course of a few months. We wanted to preserve them so we posted them on DD.

Pounklaz V is a project between darkchibishadow and I. It was started because, as friends, DCS and I wanted to do a project together. However, lack of time and some plot issues have forced us to pause it for now.
It focuses on a very sick boy and a stranger who becomes very important to him as he deals with his sickness.

Can I ask why Sailor Moon and Mars are lesbians in SSOJ? How did you come up with this plot?

For the first 3 pictures, SSOJ was between kitty17x and I. In the fourth comic however, you can see we had a guest artist– notlikelytocare. At the time, he was also a frequent visitor of the oekaki and asked to draw the next part of the story in which he made a lesbian scene between the two characters. From that point on, we just continued with that idea.

There was never a set plot however. Most scenes resulted from inside jokes (like the toothache) and from comments regarding plot holes and suggestions people made as we went along.

How long does it usually take you to make a comic, what do you listen to and how do you draw them?

A page of ELO takes anywhere between 2 to 6 hours to complete, though lately its been leaning towards the 6. Before I start drawing, I open up a playlist that consists of a lot of upbeat, fast-paced songs. I donâ€™t usually listen to the same songs every time though.

To make ELO, I start out by sketching out the page and panels on Adobe Photoshop using a tablet. I plan out the characterâ€™s lines, actions and poses all in this one step. After this, I open a new layer and make a clean copy of my sketch. These two steps usually take under an hour. Afterwards I work on coloring, adding effects and backgrounds as well as fixing any poses I changed my mind about. This can take up to 4 or more hours. The last step I do is add the dialogue and page numbers.

How do you feel about deep sea fishing?

Scary. Too many things can go wrong our there, and quite frankly, Iâ€™m a sub-par swimmer. L

You claim that if you were a cat, you would take a million naps a day. That would technically make each nap 0.0864 seconds long. Care to comment?

Meow.

I imagine drawing with paws would be rather difficult. What do you think about this?

Iâ€™m afraid that if I were a cat, Iâ€™d be much too busy napping to worry about drawing, but Iâ€™m sure I could learn how to finger-paint using my paws. Holding a tablet would be out the question however.

I also think that coming up with the plot for ELO would be difficult, being a cat. Could you describe what the plot for ELO would be like if you were a cat?

Nate and Cole would be master chefs from across the universe sent to Earth to cook the ultimate most delicious cat food recipe. Then they would kill all humans I suppose and replace them robots that would pet and feed the cats all day.

Any plans or projects in store for us? Have any long term ambitions?

I currently have 10 or so more comics Iâ€™d like to publish on DD. Many of them are fairly short and Iâ€™ve started planning them out as much as I can so the whole uploading and updating process will be easier. My only problem at the moment is just laziness. ^_^;;

I donâ€™t really have any long term ambitions. Eventually Iâ€™d like to see all my stories drawn out, though Iâ€™m patient regarding when this will be done. I of course would also like to see my drawing improve, but more importantly my storytelling comic-wise. I feel this has already begun to happen as a result of all the experience Iâ€™ve gained from ELO and will continue to work to improve. J

Finally, is there anything you'd like to tell the readers?

I change the plot of every chapter half-way in it.

Posted at 7:03PM, Mar. 13, 2009

Those Ls and Js are watching me, I can tell!
Pastel's up to something, and it probably includes me, a knife, and a bath tub full of ice cubes. ):

Posted at 10:03AM, Mar. 14, 2009

Hawt.

Lol, but seriously.
I enjoyed reading this, great job!

Posted at 5:03PM, Mar. 15, 2009

Haha, that last bit sounds like me when I'm writing a story! S'why I never bother to plan anything anymore. XD

Fun read was fun! Meow.

Posted at 12:03AM, Mar. 18, 2009

Oh Pastel… You're so delightfully pleasant.
Keep up the good work and watnot
:Flagrant System Error:
{Compliment74 name=Pastel} not found
Critical failure
System shutting down

Posted at 6:03AM, Mar. 18, 2009

~~~ <3

Aw, yay, pastel, this interveiw let's your coolness shine thru really well.

*hearts hearts hearts* I'm glad I learned some more about the pages and what not.

*fangirl stuff*

Yay for pastel. <3

Also I'm totally excited for the other stories, and also the fact that yours are short and you can to just get them all done is like me too.

I'm glad~~We can be posting comic buddies even more so~~~

*such a dork*

Posted at 9:03AM, Mar. 18, 2009

loved learning more about you, Pastel