Passionate Voices Episode 2: David Revoy

Interview with open source artist David Revoy. Timecodes below the fold. Interview content is Creative Commons CC-0, other licenses noted in the video.

4:34 Early works (age 19)
9:24 The Yin Yang of World Hunger
13:59 Pepper & Carrot
20:38 Showing his setup; Krita
23:21 Making a living from free art
30:05 About that Kickstarter ...
42:38 Advice for artists

♫ Music by BrunoXe playing ♫

This was art by David Revoy. David is an
open source artist,

he's based in Toulouse, France. Welcome
to Passionate Voices, hello David.

Hello.

David, what's your passion?

Oh, my passion is to draw picture. I think
it's the most generic terms I can find for

everything I do. From concept art, to
illustration, to everything.

The common things is making picture.
So, yes, I'm a picture painter.

PV: But it's all under a free license,
right?

Yes, yes, I also have this passion for
make it, for the free culture in general.

For delivering the things free, and
open source.

How did that start, how did you get
involved in open source, in free culture?

Oh, as far as I remember I always was
interested with the open source movement

Even when I was using Windows and
proprietary software I always kept

an eye on the Linux distributions.

I always kept an eye on GIMP, a lot
It was one of my first digital painting software

And I always really appreciated
all the movement.

I was very near also the Blender Foundation.
And all this culture finally get really inside of me.

I finally get a part of it somehow.
And now I try to also be an actor of it.

PV: So you, as far as I recall, don't
have an education in art, right?

You got involved on your own time.

How did you get started doing art,
and then make a living doing art?

I have a very tiny little education in
art. But it was industrial art.

It's the art of making object design.
And it was before 18 years old.

So it's not really serious study.

It's more like a special option
for something more general.

So I can't even call it specialized study
or something technical.

It's really general and normal.

That's why I often say in interviews
that I have no education art.

But as everyone, it's a bit false
to say this.

Because there's thousands of tutorials
available on the Internet.

Even if I studied them alone. I had a lot
of books, I had plenty of resources.

I can't say I learned all by myself.
I don't live in a grotto [cave],

and I didn't find half of the
tips and tricks I use alone.

PV: You did some street art
early on as well, right?

Yes, yes, I made it on two levels.

The first is,
I started as a portrait artist in Avignon

It's a city with a lot of tourism
in summer

And on the main place of the city

There was already portraitists

So I took time to watch
what they were doing.

And because I was very young
and they was not really afraid

I was taking some money from them

They let me start next to them
and I learned a lot of things

next to them this way.

PV: How old were you then?

Sorry?

PV: How old were you at that time?

19 years old.

PV: I think you shared some pictures
with me from that time, right?

Yes, yes.

PV: Let me actually pull those up.

This picture was took by a Japanese tourist.

She was very nice to send it to me
back at this time.

It was a real photo, sent by postal.

So I was happy to scan it
a few years ago.

PV: How old were you in this picture?

19 years old.

PV: 19 years old, wow.
And where is this taken?

It's taken on the front of a bar
in Avignon.

PV: And what were you drawing there?
Do you remember?

I was drawing this girl. [laughing]

This one is one is one of my little niece.

And I know she would accept
to be represented in this video.

PV: And what's the story behind
this picture?

At the same time I was doing
portraits, I started to make

paintings, because in the
winter, it was harder to live

so there was no tourists,
but there was a lot of

art gallery in Avignon. So I
started to do a lot of paintings.

And this is a painting I made for
this exhibition. But this one

is one of the rare that
wasn't sold. It's very black,

and I even kept this one
for myself. Because there

is a very strong focus on
the portrait. And there is

some weird reflection
on the vase of the flower.

And if you see on the corner,
you can see that it's a skirt

with the candle on it.
So there is this flower that's

almost dying. It's on the theme
of nudity, some smoking.

There is a lot of irregular things
in this painting.

She also clearly have an
arm of man in front.

So, this is probably one of my
weirdest paintings.

And one of my probably more
interesting.

Because at this time, to sell paintings

I mostly did flower, flower in vase.
I mostly did decorative paintings

It's painting as you can buy at IKEA.

Just decorative, a lot of colors,
low price. Very fast to do, to ..

Just to sell them.

Oh, this is a picture of the
same period. But just after.

And I started to mix the
decorative aspect with

the frame painting, and
with keeping interesting

subjects, like bodies, and
not flowers anymore.

And I was starting to
go a bit abstract.

So, yes, I really liked this period,
because it was colorful, abstract

and I started to be a bit more
artistic. Less figurative.

Less trying to do gradients,
skin textures and everything.

PV: Yeah, you can sort of recognize
the date by the cell phone.

[laughs] Yes, yes, this is the old
Nokia from .. 2000, yes!

PV: And this is one of the more
decorative paintings

you were mentioning?

Yes, and this is the end
of my painting period.

This piece was one of, like, 20
similar to this one.

In different colors.

I was totally going to almost
abstract, and the pleasure

of color and form for
themselves.

So, I'm really happy to [have] made
a lot of paintings

and to have pushed my
creativity to deconstruct

things, still going to abstract.
It's very satisfying from now,

from what I learned.
Because now I'm illustrator,

but I do very figurative things.
And I still remember what is

more important in art than
just representing,

or just the technique. There
is something emotional

that you can just reach with colors
and don't need to represent ..

PV: Very beautiful choice of colors,
for sure.

Thank you. On a screen it's nothing.
In real life, with all the glazing,

and all the layers it's, when there
is a sunray on it, it's wonderful.

I can't see it anymore. It was bought.
[laughs]

PV: So, in the opening sequence
we saw this painting World Hunger,

The Yin-Yang of
World Hunger.

Can you talk a little bit about
the story behind this painting?

- Yes.

PV: And I think that one is computer
art. You drew it on the computer.

- It's computer art, yes.
Like 80% computer art.

There is a drawing made on paper
at first. And I did a scan of it.

Sometimes there is some idea
that won't leave your mind.

And this one, one of them. I just
was working I think on the metro

in Toulouse, and suddenly I just
saw a yin-yang somewhere.

And I get this idea that
the black part is not really

balanced in real life.

But it was really controversial,
and I said no, if I represent this, people

will believe it's about racial things,
and geopolitical. When the questions

started to circle like this in my head
and I say, okay, I will not survive

with all these questions in my head
I need to put it down to see what

it will be. It resulted in one of my
most controversial pieces, probably.

PV: Controversial how?

Yeah. Because even this week I still
received a lot of comments about it.

Some people sent me statistics
and say, "You see your artwork

is not the truth." Or: "This doesn't
represent white people."

They're totally out of topic.
It's not really about white

and black people. It's really about
two sides that should learn

to share the resources, and that
can't. The two sides are suffering,

and people don't get it in this
illustration. They think there's one

side that's very happy and the
other side that suffers.

And I want to show that the
pain for the body exists

on both sides. I'm just angry at the
out of balance things. And this

artwork was all about it. Not race,
not really geography, not really

all the things I could learn about it.
But it's really about things out of

balance, about food. Yes, I still
receive some crazy emails

about it. Some even threaten
me to death for this piece.

PV: Wow.

Yes, but I'm secure. I think it's just email.
I also receive politics - there is

politics who want ot use this piece.
In South Africa. And I always refuse.

This is, for example, one of the pieces
that would be very problematic for me

to put in Creative Commons Attribution.
Because the sort of reuse that would be

too difficult to manage.

PV: Yeah, so on that one, I think you've
chosen the Non-Commercial and No-Derivatives,

so people can still use it like in this video
but not if ithey're using it commercially

and not if they're manipulating it or
adding meaning to it that

isn't there to begin with.

Yes, and if someone hear this during
this interview, my art in Creative Commons

Non-Derivative and Non-Commercial,
is just the public license behind it.

I don't say public domain. The public
way I write the license. But if you come

to me with an email, or if you want to
work with me, just contact, and I can

give exceptional permission to override,
to let them display in a video, or to

support some things, and there's plenty
of association about hunger that use

this illustration, and I'm really happy to
give them the illustration for free.

But it's just a filter.

PV: So, recently you've started to create
a webcomic, called Pepper & Carrot.

And Pepper & Carrot is a very ambitious
project. The individual episodes, how much

time do you take for any one of these
episodes? They're huge, right? Any one ..

I don't count. [laughs] Probably if I say the
amount of hours, people won't believe me

and they would say no. Really, it probably
represents more than 10 hours

per frame sometimes. Because I start
over. If I don't like the story

I remove something, and I add. I just want
to make it perfect, as I would like to.

This idea is very crazy, because when I look
back to the first episode now, I see them

as very not perfect. But maybe I took
a bit of skill on the way, and I'm really happy

about seeing that now I would handle
them totally differently.

I'm really happy to make all what
I have inside it, and to push them

to the point that I can't push it more.
Because it's the only true way

to see where I am as an artist.
When I see now an old episode

I know that I couldn't do better
even if it's crappy, I couldn't

do better. I made everything
possible, so it's really

representative of all my skill
at this moment.

I don't have really a lot of regret
but of course I always want

to take them all over, and think them
all over, and make look everything better.

PV: Can you talk a little bit about your technique?
You sketch a little bit on paper for P&C?

Oh, Pepper & Carrot is a pure laboratory
of techniques. I don't have any rules

for the techniques. I have drawings that come
to my mind in color. I have drawings that

come to my mind in concept, and I need to
invent a machine, or to make a plan.

And I have things that come with words.
So, depending where the input comes

from my mind, and how lazy I am,
because sometimes starting on paper

can take more time than starting
on computer for some topics,

and I manage all of this inside my
brain and I often start with a method,

it's always the wrong method.
I'm really, really gifted to take

always the wrong method. [laughs]
The one after ten panels I hate,

and I say, no, not anymore, next
time I should find something else.

This is too hard. But yes, I don't have
any rules. Yes, I can start on paper,

I can start on computer, I can ink
directly with pencil, or I can ink

on computer.

PV: Do you have some sketches you
can show us?

Oh, yes. So, sketches about Pepper.

Is it good like this?

PV: Yeah, we can just barely make it
out, yeah. We can see her hat!

Yeah, I think if I remove her hat, a lot
of people wouldn't recognize

her. Yes, her hat is just a big part of
her personality.

Yes, I had one user who submitted a
story. It's a story of Pepper losing her hat.

And I was really curious,
if she loses her hat, it would be

very difficult for her to ..
So, another. Yes, there's a bit

of storyboarding on the top.

PV: And a unicorn, I see.
I don't think the unicorn

was in the webcomic yet, so ..

Yeah, no, rejected for the moment.
[laughs]

PV: It's like a slightly bored
unicorn. [laughs]

Ah yes, I really want to make this
fantastic and beautiful creature

look totally boring and depressive.
[both laughing]

I think I have a dragonpig on this one.

PV: Oh, that's awesome. We've seen the
dragoncow before, but not a dragonpig.

This one is still rejected. It looks
too fabulous for a dragonpig.

Dragonpig should probably be
maybe be more like this one.

PV: Yeah, that's a more conventional
pig with wings.

All of these drawings are cleaned.
I work on it and all. And I filtered

something that I never show, but this
is really the true stuff.

When I do sketches, there is how it really
looks. And you will see it's not looking

really good. This was the sketches for
the city of Komona.

PV: This is great, yeah.

It's notes, it's a type of picture
that I can only understand myself.

And here is the script of the episode six.

Yeah, it's a bit messy and old.

Yes, sometime I'm even too ashamed
to .. about this skill, about sketch.

So I have to redraw a bit the sketch
before putting them online.

I want to say to the younger audience
that say, "Oh, whoah, you made

a sketch, it's again something
beautiful", most of the time the

artist who does beautiful
sketch, there is work behind it.

And the real sketch is the
same for everyone. It's just

ideas on the paper. We don't need
to be brilliant when we do a sketch.

It's just ideas.

PV: And on the computer, you use
a tablet, right?

Yes, yes.

PV: What kind of tablet is it?

It's a Wacom Intuos. It's an old tablet.
I will try to show it.

I will put it on my point of view.
Here is my landscape daily when I work.

PV: And you use an application called
Krita for the most part, right?

I'm really happy to use Krita now,
because by the past when I was already

on the open source, I was using a mixture
of a lot of software. A fork of GIMP,

GIMP Painter, made by Japanese developers.
I was using also MyPaint, a little software

compared to GIMP for painting, and
another one, maybe also little,

Alchemy, to do some sort of symmetry
and chaotic things. I am really happy

now because there's this Krita
project and I can do all my artwork

from scratch on it, from the zero
point to the end, inside it.

That's a very big change from what
I experienced only four years ago.

PV: So, when I look at the stuff
that you share online, you

don't just share the artwork, you share
speedpainting, you share tutorials,

you share backgrounds, you share the
brushsets, so you make a lot of your

internals and your process visible,
which helps other people to learn

from you, which I think is great.
What would you like to see from

the community that you're not
seeing. What would you like to see

from the Krita community, from
the Krita users? Is there any area

in which the product, or the
community, could do better?

I would really like this
community to create a

subcommunity. I would like to
see a free/libre painter

forum maintained by young
people. I see a lot of this type

of community on videogames.
I would like to see the same

energy in Krita, around GIMP,
around Mypaint, and not only

the official website or the official
forum, but some place more creative,

about creativity. More about creativity
than about the technique.

Just to leave the official forum for
the technique, for the bugs, for how to do

this or this, and the creativity on a
separate platform.

PV: You're probably now, today,
one of the few people on the planet

who make a living, or almost make
a living, from freely licensed art.

Can you talk a little bit about how
you came to be to the point where

you can actually derive at least a partial
income from this work?

It's a very long process, and it starts
probably at the Sintel project.

I was the part of the Sintel
project, and in the intro video

you see a little part of it.
This project was an open movie,

produced by Ton Rosendaal at the
Blender Foundation with all the

artists, and I made the art direction
on it. The whole project was

crowdfunded, and of course the movie,
the source of the movie, and everything

is also libre and open license. So, if you
look at Pepper & Carrot, and if you look

back to the origin inside Sintel, there
is a sort of pattern.

There is the same license, there is the
type of media, it's not 3D animated but

it's just entertainment. And I think I
got really inspired by this model.

I also proposed a credit at the end
of each episode, as the Blender

Foundation proposed a credit at the
end of the movies. About what people

online, I received email, your business
model is totally crazy. Can you call it

a business model even? Yes, it's
something I saw working, you have

to trust. When I started Pepper & Carrot
and made this, my wife watched it

and said, "You shouldn't use this
crazy license."

And I said, "No, I should." [laughs]
And one of users around ..

No, the true story, when I started
Pepper & Carrot, I started it as

Non-Derivative and Non-Commercial.
The first Patreon page. And the

second Patreon I had, a long user in the
free community, and said to me,

"Why do you use Non-Derivative
and Non-Commercial."

And I thought about it, and, yeah,
why? That's crazy, I limit myself

with this license. So, I sent him a
letter and said, yes, you're right.

I will go Creative Commons Attribution.
This is the way to go.

But I wasn't really 100% sure. When you start
from scratch, there is a lot of doubt about

everything, so ..

PV: And now you have a commitment from your
fans to get, what is it, now more than $900

for every finished episode of
Pepper & Carrot?

Yes, and it's a lot. From the perspective
of a free project, it's a lot.

From the perspective of entertainment
project only, I don't propose development,

I don't sell rewards, and all my comics,
all my source, all my bonus and extras

are online. So from this perspective
it's really a lot. I thank a lot all my

Patreons. I don't know how to say, Patreons
or patrons. I often mix the two.

I'm sure people laugh about it. I really
thank them to stand behind

Pepper & Carrot. It represents a lot
to me. Of course it's a dream come

through. Come true. [laughs]
It's a dream come true.

Every artist I know would love to make
their own comics. Would love to get

paid for making it. To keep the control
of it. About the stories, about the heart.

I worked a lot for publishers in the
past. And if I had a publisher for

Pepper & Carrot, I'm sure it would ask for
more breast for Pepper. It would say,

hey, Pepper could be a bit more older,
with a bit more sex appeal, because

it's a comic, and the target audience
are teenager male, could you fix this

and after, if I start to fix something
like this, it would say, "Ah, next story,

I want a battle, and next story,
you could do this." That's how

artwork publishers, they also take care of
marketing nowadays. And I'm really

happy I can make crazy ideas and
stories about Pepper & Carrot

without relying on violence or
sexual things or all the classic

of the comics format. And this,
I can only thank my patrons

to make this happen. Because
without them I would have to

go to a publisher to live for doing
Pepper & Carrot. Yes, it would be

closed, I would probably work
six months without [being able to]

show any artwork to the
community, so it's very very hard

to work alone, doing forty
page of comics, and suddenly

just release them for people
who can pay for it.

Buy the books. It's really not a model
I like. I really like to be online.

To propose new artworks. To interact
with the audience.

PV: So, you talked earlier about the
non-commercial restriction.

The idea to limit what people can do,
whether it's making derivatives

or selling your work. So, just a couple
of days ago someone created a

Kickstarter with the art from
Pepper & Carrot, raising money

to create a printed version of
your comic that they do not

legally have to give you any share of.
And it seems to be a very successful

Kickstarter so far. And I know you've
been talking to the guy who launched it.

Can you talk a little bit about your feelings
on that kind of reuse and resale of

noncommercially, community-created
art?

I will first talk a bit about this
Kickstarter.

Yes, there was an issue in this
Kickstarter. The author of the

Kickstarter, in the description
of his crowdfunding page,

was acting like he was the
creator. He was quoting my name

but he was acting like it was
my Kickstarter page, and it was

really not visible inside the page.
So people couldn't really know if

it's not me. For example, people
don't know really my picture, so

they could say, "Oh, it's how
David Revoy looks, and he

took a nickname on Kickstarter,
it's his page, and he wants to

print his comic." And that was
an issue, because I don't know

what the quality of his comics
will be. I wish it would be good

because the Kickstarter is
successful. It's already,

I didn't check, but I think it's
really crossed now, a lot, the goal.

And, so I asked him to make a little
paragraph about himself and saying it's a

derivative project. It's a
republishing. And also sending

a link to the Creative Commons
Attribution. And also linking to the

original website. Because on the
first page, there was no link.

There was no link to Creative
Commons or even mentioning

it was took from a libre comic.
So it was just a wrong usage of

the Creative Commons license.
Now it's fixed I'm really happy

for him. Because I know there is
people behind this type of project.

I'm really happy if Pepper & Carrot
can bring more money for

external people. I'm really happy also
to see it's a success.

Because, yes, of my drawings, and
that's like a little publisher project.

So, yes, I encourage this type of
project, but I really like

when it's done respecting the
rules. What I often dislike

about the usage of Creative
Commons in commercial usage

is, because it's free, people
just get out of the rules.

It's free, so it's easy to misuse
or just trash the author name.

When people don't pay for it,
they sort of don't respect it.

And I dislike, because I would
prefer to see the [other] way around.

It's easier to respect something that
was given for free, in my opinion.

PV: Yeah, no, it's interesting. In my
experience with Wikipedia, what happened,

a lot of people created these automatically
generated books, for example, and sold

them on Amazon, with Wikipedia articles
in them. But on the other hand, other

people created these new distribution
mechanisms for Wikipedia.

Offline distribution for developing
countries. Mirrors that are faster

to access in certain regions of the world.
A Wikipedia for Schools version.

And some of these projects were
commercial in nature. So you sort of

get the good with the bad with the
Creative Commons Attribution license.

You get new creative reuses, and
something like this Kickstarter

arguably is showing, wow, there's
actually a lot of people who would

love to see a printed version of
Pepper & Carrot, which is perhaps

something that wasn't clear
before. But on the other hand,

they don't have to play nice.
But you as an artist have a lot

of power to say, look, this is a good
project, this is a bad project.

You should be paying attention to this
person, you should not be

supporting that person. And I think
people will listen if you were to say,

no, this is not a legitimate Kickstater,
you shouldn't support it.

Yes, and I was really happy to be
in contact this morning with

the author of this Kickstarter because
he could send me a link to his

previous Kickstarter, and say it's
showing he already did this for

other comics, and the comments
were positive about receiving the

comics. So I know he will deliver
something, I know people will

be happy with the print quality.
So that's why at mid-day I reposted

it everywhere to show my support
with his work on it, because as far

as I understood, the comics will be
delivered in September. So he will

probably have to print them, to
send them, postal address and

all. Of course maybe it's more
simple than creating them.

But I'm really supportive about it.
[laughs] Because it's probably

something, I wouldn't have the time
to do it myself.

Here, to have the stock of all the
Pepper & Carrot books, go to the

post and fix all the address problems and
all. If I do this, I will not draw. [laughs]

PV: So, Dave, what's your big vision?
On the Patreon page you make mention

of this idea of Hereva studio. Can you
talk a little bit about what that means.

Like, if you reach the goal -- what was
it, tens of thousands of dollars

per month? Some very crazy ambitious
amount.

- Yes, yes. I remember because I was still
with my wife, and I presented her the

offline version of the new milestone
with this crazy goal at the end.

But it wasn't that, I think it was like
5000 dollars for this goal.

And she saw it. "You want to make
a studio with 5000 dollars a month?"

[laughs] And I say, "Yes, it's asking
quite a bit." "Okay, let's do the math,

we are in France, you need room,
apartment, to pay the tax,

for people to clean the room."
And we started to write

everything, at the end, we saw it,
and we saw that the base price

for it is maybe this amount per
month. And it's only a base price,

it's even not fancy. And I say,
okay, well, I have to be realistic,

because if it's not realistic, and
I can't deliver something,

it will be very crazy.

PV: So, what's the idea? What
would the studio do?

Oh, I think every artist can
relate to this.

In a very pretentious way,
the goal behind Pepper & Carrot

is probably to make something
as big as a Disney or a Ghibli.

But with free culture. I want
people to [be able to] open

[theme] parks, to [be able to] reuse
merchandising, to [be able to]

do movie and TV and series anime.
And everything. Don't be afraid

to reuse the character, to just
make a little appearance in

a movie or something. I would
like to build something as big.

But for the moment I'm alone.
And this idea is very pretentious.

So I just keep it for myself.
So, the Hereva studio,

for the moment, is just the
project of, the seed of this

big thing. It's a studio
with a 3D artist to make a

first animated version.
Because I believe the

animation with voice,
with acting, with everything,

is easier to get far wider
audience than comics.

I love comics, I will still
do comics, I will still do

the episode per month,
even if I have the studio.

I will still create and
develop the characters.

But I want to build aside
a version easier to see,

to watch, for younger
generation, who see a lot

of high quality, high
definition. Any maybe a comic

is not enough anymore
for them.

PV: So really, to take
Pepper & Carrot to

a completely new level.

[laughs] Oh, yes, yes.
It would give a life,

give a voice to Pepper. Give
movement. Give soundtrack.

Everything.

PV: Stuffed animals.

[laughs] Yes, yes. And I'm really
afraid about this period.

Because it will be very hard
to manage.

But I'm really positive it will
happen.

PV: So do you think we're now in
an era where anyone with

talent can create free culture
and make a living doing it?

Are we at that point yet?

I wish. I really wish we were.
It would be pretentious

to say I'm an example of this.
I'm just lucky to be at the

right moment with maybe the
right competencies for this.

And maybe it will be a fashion.
Maybe in one year, or two years

I will have no supporters because
another model will be better

for it. So it's hard to say if our
period is a good period for

talents to just live about their
passion. All of the Patreons

and all the ways to fund projects
are very related to the audience.

Even someone who starts and
have no audience, no base

audience, will have a lot of
difficulty, even if he made or

she made the more perfect
artworks ever.

It will grow. Good artwork,
good quality will always attract,

and that's fair, that's how it works.
But it takes time, it takes really

a lot of time. And on my side,
I started Pepper & Carrot with

not a big audience, maybe people
would laugh at me if I said a big

audience. But with maybe people
who care about my work already.

So it's really helped to spread the
word, to talk about it. And without

this base audience, I think I wouldn't
be at this level on the Patreon on

Pepper & Carrot.

PV: What would you say to people
who are trying to do this from

scratch, who are trying to build
a Patreon community like you did.

What advice would you give them?

The first advice, focusing on quality.

And when I say quality, it's not
technical quality, it's also emotional

contents, the storytelling behind
each piece.

Something interesting, to build
some interest. And they can

choose to be generous or not. I don't
say, go to Creative Commons Attribution

because I did. No, this is a personal
choice. I think if an artist is not

comfortable with it, you can still
even make very good quality,

post it for free online. And just
posting it for free online is

already a very big gift in a way.
I think a lot of artists start to paint

and just struggle on the technique
side, and say, I must find a way

to make this face look beautiful
to attract an audience, and it's

not working this way. I think it's
more about the content and the

theme. Even if I'm a technical artist
I never really cared about the

techniques. But I paint, I paint
every day. So, techniques came,

and when you're frustrated, because
it doesn't look great, you fix things

on the way. But without something
to say, it's easy to just do techniques

and say, okay, I will probably start
to tell things when I will be ready

technically. And I see plenty of
artists that are very gifted,

technically, but that have nothing
to say by the end. Because they

just focused on techniques.
So they do pretty girls,

pretty girls, pretty girls, pretty girls.
"I painted a pretty girl."

"Oh, a fan art, oh, a fan art, a fan art."
They even don't have own images.

They have to pick the universe
of something they saw, because

their imagination is empty.
And yes, I'm very sad for them.

Because it feels like empty shell.
There is nothing inside.

The outside is very beautiful,
the technique is perfect,

very impressive. So, that's
my advice for people who begin

with art and trying to make
a community. Just work

on the content.

PV: Focus on creating something
new, something original, right.

I mean, if you think about all the
successful webcomics online now,

like XKCD, SMBC, all of those
great strips. They're all very

original ideas, very lovingly
done, lots of attention to

the content, but the art itself,
the technique, may not even

be that amazing in many cases.
Like, XKCD is stick figures, literally.

And yet it has this huge following,
because the ideas are really beautiful.

- I often say to the students
asking me about email and all,

imagine if Terry Pratchett, he's
not living now, I was taking this

example often then. Imagine
if him was drawing, even stick

figures. He would be successful
in comics. Even if people didn't

know his empire of world and
books. I'm sure an artist like this

with only stick figures could also
be very successful.

And after I say, okay, and now imagine
one of the best painters of

every time with nothing to say
and with no content, and him

couldn't be successful.

PV: Thank you so much for
sharing your passion with us

and for sharing all your work
so freely and so generously

with the world.

- Thank you a lot for your time,
for this little window on

talking about my passion,
and also for supporting myself.

I really appreciate it.

PV: Thank you, David.

Thanks.