Winner Interview: The Art Sensei ~Coffee~

Hello, fellow MangaHelpers!
I'm Farfalla and today I present an interview with the MH Artist and winner of the The Breaker Fan Art Competition, ~Coffee~!
He's one of the most active and talented artists we have around, and not only shared his work with others through the Art Contests and his gallery, but also provided a lot of pieces that were used on MangaHelpers works.
Here are the words of this ancient sets and banners master:

1- Tell us a bit about yourself. What brought you to MangaHelpers and what do you like to do/check here?
Hmmm, I remember seeing MangaHelpers a few times before for manga downloads but what really brought me here for good was the art contests. I always liked making anime and manga Signatures with photoshop and whatnot and I was looking for a good place to join the competitions when I stumbled into the Art section here at MangaHelpers. I later then got further sucked into the MangaHelpers world with the game sections of the forums and then deeper when I was asked to be an Art Section Mod.

2- Since you were interested in becoming a digital artist from the beginning, how do you see your journey so far?
I feel that my journey has been an extremely wonderful one, I have learned many new techniques from the other artists and the drive to compete with them. I mentioned before that I was looking for a good website to join the contests, I tried a few others before but some of them had such tight communities already that they all but ignored a newcomer like me, I didn't get any votes in the voting stage, I never got feedback on my works, and I rarely received and responses to any forums posts I made.
So when I finally found the friendly MangaHelpers staff and users it was an amazing time.

3- How do you feel about the MangaHelpers Art Contests nowadays? As a Senpai, please give us your full point of view!
Ah yes, I foresaw this question~
If you didn't know already, the contest, which used to be purely a 'Signature Contest' is now basically a random art contest every two weeks or so.
While this is extremely fun as in it tests my digital art skills and you never know what is coming up next, I feel like it is being run at a way slower and slightly more sloppy pace than before. Though I understand why and the important thing is that we still have it; I appreciate it greatly.

4- Ah! We'll work on adjustments, hehe! And what caught your attention to The Breaker Fan Art Competition, specifically?
Well when I first saw information about The Breaker Fan Art Competition, it was good old Bugzee who made a post about it in the All-Purpose Art Contest Discussion Thread.
I extremely enjoy The Breaker, so I knew I had to join this Contest, even though I was already in the process of TWO other contests, The Female Drawing contest and then later the Coloring of the winner of said drawing contest. Trying to color two works at once with a deadline is decently stressful~

5- Now tell us a bit about the winning piece. What was the inspiration and techniques to create it?
LOL, basically the inspiration was the fact that I was running out of time. At the start I was going to completely make my own line-art from the panel and then color that. After I got just the basic outline of the head done I said to myself "This is NOT going to work in time." So I scrapped that idea and just colored the panel. I still wanted some element of originality in the piece so I erased the background and made my own. I then added some blood splatter on his face because I felt that it was missing from the original panel (he was in a fierce battle with blood all over him in the panels before). I then finished it up with a nice smoke brush from my collection to create the steam/fog coming from his mouth.

6- What do you think about contests focused on manga and anime series and in MangaHelpers events so far? Is there any particular series you'd like to see as a contest theme?
Oh my~~~ I enjoy the thought of contests focused on certain series. I see spikes in votes whenever certain renders are used for Signature contests, especially One Piece characters.
Usually we get maybe 10-20 voters per contest but I remember this one contest had a One Piece themed signature by Bugzee and I believe it pulled in over 50 votes just for that one work
Having anime/manga themed contests would cut down on that, even just by a little.
Anyways, there are tons of series I would like to see. Anything from the Fate Stay/Night series, Code Geass, or even series like Tora-Dora.

7- You have a point about the votes! And what would be your advice to aspiring artists? Do you have tips to share right now?
I always have tips to share. I have been using photoshop for quite a long time now and even though they continuously come out with new features for it. The basics still go 90% of the way to making things look good.
My advice would have to be to stay patient while working on your pieces, try many different things until you find one that fits, and if you are just starting out, do not be afraid to go check out some Tutorials online and follow them step by step. This is the quickest way to get a feel for the procedures of making digital art.

8- Do you work with your art outside MangaHelpers as well? Is it related to the job you have or think about having in your real life?
I do work with my art outside of MangaHelpers, though not as much as I would like to. There isn't much call for Anime Signatures out there~
Once in a while I will do some Freelance Photoshop work that I get paid for.
Lately I have also entered in some of my Digital Artwork into Fairs, in which I took home a 2nd place prize in the Advanced section.

9- Wow, that's awesome! I hope that things continue to go well. Now, please, use this space to add other words you'd like to share with the readers.
Ok, I've been decently humble the entire interview, now it is time to say ~ Come and enter the Art Contests, I need someone to pressure me; to force me to make better works~
~Oh and thank you Farfalla for taking the time to interview me. You, my friend, are awesome.~

Haha, I appreciate that! Thank you for your words and for the important comments, ~Coffee~! We're looking forward to see new pieces created by you in the future!
In case you have more questions for ~Coffee~, you can ask them here, and in case you'd like to check ~Coffee~'s other pieces, you can visit his gallery and leave your comments there!

Até a próxima!