=LeoLeonardo

I stumbled upon deviantART by following a link that someone on a forum provided way back in the olden days. It got me interested in starting to make my own art and I created an account rather quickly after that.

Mainly the constructive feedback I was getting on the things I submitted as well as the friends I found when I joined, a few of which I knew from the forum I found DA via.

It all started because of the dastardly webcomic VG Cats, where one of the main characters name is Leo Leonardo. I was hugely fascinated by the character and started using LeoLeonardo as my screenname on forums. Later, when I started to develop a so-called "fursona" (most people probably don't want to notice that I'm also an anthro artist besides all the emoticons), I named the alter-ego Leo Christopher Leonardo.

Later, when I developed my emoticon character, I chose to just stick with Leo at first, but it later evolved into Pope Leo Emoticus I, but these days I prefer just Leo.

I would have loved to just have Leo as my screenname, but it was already taken.

I remember that I used to play around a lot with some old animation programs on the computers they had back in grade-school, creating silly and simple stick-figure based animations with my friends. as for traditional art, I've always drawn silly little sketches and such in my notebooks, but it wasn't really until about the early 2000's that I started to actually draw "seriously", so to say.

I'll take this as a two part question.

1) It was thanks to ~tei that I picked up Anthro art, he's that guy from that forum, so I guess it's also his thanks that I'm here today.

2) As for emoticons, I think it's all thanks to a competition that =MisterIngo set up way back that I got interested in making emoticons in the first place.

I think it's mainly the fact that people seem to get happy by viewing my emoticons. I apparently inspire a lot of people, and that makes me really happy.

That's a very good question, but tough to answer. I think it might be my emoticon :time:



It was the most complex emoticon I had ever created when I made it, and if you compare it to the speed at which I make emoticons these days, I think it was probably the piece I spent most time on creating ever.

A lot of passion went into it, and it even garnered me a DD, and I think it is still one of the most important creations I made, not counting the Tower project.

If you only want to look at the general impact a single submission has made for me and the community as a whole, that one is obviously the most important one.

Looking at what I've done so far over the years, and what the community has done for me, my main goal on deviantART is improving, inspiring and evolving the Emoticon community, and I think most people are happy with what I'm doing there.

The Re-Opened Tower Project is still on, and I'm updating it again soon, so people are always welcome to make more entries for it!

This is a tough question for me, cause I have a lot of favorites, but to name a few that I really like:

-One Hour Photo
-Fight Club
-The Nightmare Before Christmas
-Romero's Trilogy of the Dead
-Evil Dead trilogy
-Matrix
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons
-2001: A Space Odyssey
-The Shining
-Original Star Wars trilogy
-Lord of the Rings
-All 4 Monty Python movies

There are many, many more, but the list could go on forever, so I'll leave it as such.

My favorite genre is called UK Hardcore, and I guess it could be called "Rave Music" to those that aren't familiar with it.

However, I enjoy mostly every kind of music.

-Hitchikers Guide series
-Terry Pratchett's City Watch series
-Eric Nylund's Halo books ([link] [link] &[link])
-Harry Potter series
-Let the Right One In
-Bilbo

Hamburgers/Tacos and Coke

On DA: People asking me: "How do I use that emoticon???"

In general: Ignorant people...

Besides the fact that I'm an anthro artist?

Hmm. I guess it could be that I have a huge scar across my forehead from when I hit it against a slide when I was a kid. The cut I got was so deep that I could see my own skull in the mirror, which was a very traumatic experience. :0

Luckily, the scar isn't that visible anymore these days.

During the process of creating your art, take a moment to step back and observe what your making. Look at it from a different angle. Let another person have a look at it and share their opinion on it. Think critically and constructively as you create and view art. And remember that a piece can always be changed and improved.

Expressing ones feelings or thoughts with something you create. Art can be anything and almost everything is art. Anything that a person has made using their own imagination as base can be considered art.

Remember to always brush your teeth, boys and girls!

If you have a recommendation of someone you think I should interview for this series please send me a note with a subject of "DM Rec"