I like both approaches, but the rough, sketchy expressiveness is one of my favorite things about your work! There are plenty of other artists doing slick digital stuff, not so many who can keep things loose and have them look this good.

I'm flattered! It just strikes me that I should know how to make something look slick if the need ever comes up. I have this same problem with my music - I smother my guitar sound in distortion like Bob Mould and sorta play in outer space. It sounds good, but you came here to hear the song, right? That's the issue I'm having with myself.

He's cute, although the tied-on nose is a bit tacky and doesn't make me believe he's THAT anxious And I guess you can already tell I prefer the sketchy style with actual white paper around, as compared to sterile ones and zeros XD At least from you, it suits your style more, I would say

I'm flattered! It just strikes me that I should know how to make something look slick if the need ever comes up. I have this same problem with my music - I smother my guitar sound in distortion like Bob Mould and sorta play in outer space. It sounds good, but you came here to hear the song, right? That's the issue I'm having with myself.

That's the thing, how much can I distress the digital stuff? I play it sloppy because that's the only way I know. (But if you know me at all, as much as I love the idea of having at least one recognizable style that I can exploit for gain, the idea of only having one style terrifies and ossifies me. I want to be adept at both.)

I don't know, man...from my limited experience, an artist needs more of a brash style to make it work in a sleek digital look. With your art, most of the time I have the feeling it wants to stay in the background, even if its clearly in the foreground. Also, the way your lines wobble around...as if they are ashamed of their existence and want to escape the viewer's eye, and weasel their way out of the picture XD It would be cool to see more self-confidence in your art that isn't the sinister determination of a predator gloating down on his shock-frozen prey

Insight!

It's sorta been something I notice that commissioners prefer digital because they know what they're getting. I should try something stronger, because my digital art is for the most part even weaker in terms of line. For someone who's a fan of James Montgomery Flagg and the Stone Roses and unbridled arrogance as a conduit to art; and Peter Arno and Earl Oliver Hurst and the thick smooth strong ink line, my lines are pretty anemic and wiggly. I need some bold shit, like the charcoal lines on his crotch here. For some reason, the lines on my watercolors always end up choppier than any other medium, which is sorta counterintuitive, right?
I feel you. I'll go back to my linework. Put it in the foreground. Make it Big and black. (This album is best enjoyed in the dark with all the lights off and as loud as you can.)
And I KNOW, I'm still working to counteract it. It may be my motif, but I'm not trying to encourage it. I'll challenge you - I do something simperingly romantic and you do something psychologically brutal?

Difficult to say what commissioners generally prefer; digital is surely predominant in the fandom, asides from some exceptions like Blotch, whose portfolio is even black and white pieces in the majority. I know my commissioners prefer traditional at least from me, but it's also all I'm offering, so go figure XD I remember one of my followers on SoFurry mentioning he watches me because my traditional art stood out, compared to the rest. I would guess from my limited experience that it's more difficult to develop one's own style with digital art, since it's easier to copy and adopt another style in this medium. When I, on the other hand, copy a Blotch piece, it will inevitably look different, my infinitely lesser skills being one factor, and another one that any physical medium is unpredictable to an extent.

I remember you pointing that album out to me, in the context of that the guitarist was the room mate of your father centuries ago? XD Something like that. And I'm happily accepting that challenge! I will see if I can summon some of my early-twenties Weltschmerz and channel it into a pic Not sure, though, how I will do that, but I will try, even if just for you doing your part of the challenge XD It might be difficult, since either one carries that mindset through all of his life to a degree, or it remains in that certain phase, where it stays in the past as a more or less vague memory.

I remember playing Final Fantasy 8 on the original Playstation back then, and the angsty, brooding teenage hero was SO up my alley back then. An significantly older NPC would start talking to him about "when I was YOUR age", and the response fitted perfectly to my mindset back then: "why am I even listening to him...NOBODY is my age..." XD Kinda like most people can listen to Nirvana or, dog forbid, Linkin Park only at a certain phase in their lives. But let's see what I can come up with