The Process Interviews Miss Arania!

[Vengeance1701]

1) How long have you been doing transformation art?

Well, I’ve had an internet presence doing transformation artwork since 2003. However, It’s always been a subject I’ve been interested in, and something I used to doodle even on like the margins of my notes in high school or make very rudimentary sequences way back in the day. They didn’t take an adult bent until much later, however

2) What got you interested in transformations in the first place? Is this something you picked up as a kid or something that developed later (well, the sexual parts obviously would be later....I think...unless you were VERY precocious!:P)

It is something I picked up as a kid – at least in the more basic interest in the idea of transformation. I think Pinocchio was probably the original source – I know the Donkey scene left an impression and I used to make construction paper “costumes” based on donkey ears/hooves/etc when I was really young. I also used to go to the library when I was a little girl and ask for books about “people turning into things”. I wasn’t very precocious when it comes to the adult stuff – ironically I was actually a pretty late bloomer when it comes to that and it wasn’t until I was in college that I ever drew anything with even nudity.

3) Being a girl is somewhat unusual 'around these parts'. Have you found the going rough at all being a lady in largely a male-dominated fetish?

Honestly, not really. Most people have been really nice. I know that there are at least a few other female TF artists out there and I think that in the art community you find a larger proportion of females than in the fanbase as a whole, but that might just be my own misinterpretation or maybe female viewers don’t speak up as much – who knows X3. Anyway, I don’t think it’s been weird or rough because of my gender – though I have wondered if people ever don’t believe I’m really a female.

4) Further, as a girl, do you have an opinion on certain subsets of the various transformation categories saying that there's a rape problem?

That might be tied to there being a strong connection between TF art and adult work, and then anything with the unwilling side of TF can have kind of rapey vibes. There’s a thin line sometimes between rape fantasy / “anime rape” and things with a truly malevolent overtone. It’s difficult to make a hard rule about that when it comes to what I will/won’t do, but I will speak up if there are themes in a commission I don’t feel comfortable personally portraying.

That being said, I think unwilling transformations have some themes that I personally like – the fighting the feelings of lust and being overcome by it – wanting something despite knowing the negative repercussions are interesting themes. And I think transformation as a whole has a lot of analogy for the feelings of lust and the “animal inside” being set free – put in a very literal term.

5) You've sometimes come under criticism for your art. How do you feel when somebody claims your art never improves, etc, etc? In general, how do you deal with critics?

Most critics don’t talk to me face to face/email me directly but will post elsewhere. A good part of me avoids some of the message boards as a whole because I don’t like drama and negativity. It’s a niche enough community as it is and I think people should be supportive of each other.

As far as improvement, I do strive to improve my work on anatomy, colors, etc etc etc. It feels good to look back on some of my older work and see changes in my style and human anatomy, etc over the years. I think everyone learns and develops at different rates artistically, and I Do try.

6) As a follow-up to that.... do you work to improve or do you feel you've already hit the top?

I certainly don’t feel like I’ve hit the top. I watch a lot of artists on FA, Deviantart, etc and am amazed by what other artists can do – their styles, etc. I find it fascinating ho you will have almost as many different art processes with how artists color/etc as you do artists. I strive to learn and experiment and improve. I don’t always have the time to take a step away from my work and try some outside-the-box challenges, but it’s something I want to make the time to do. But I’m almost constantly drawing, and certainly want to improve :3

7) Awhile ago (when I had more free time than I generally do now) we talked and I asked if you draw whatever people commission you to or if you are genuinely interested in all the things you draw. You said that you're happy to make whatever the commissioner wants come to life...or something to that effect Does this still hold true?

99% of the art I do is commission-based. However, I’ve always been interested in transformations and transformation art, so I’m lucky to have fallen into the niche in the online community to be able to do so much commissionwork that is TF based. However, I certainly am open to doing other work (and I find depicting other subjects interesting, too, granted ^^. ) Not every commission is “my bag” – and I’ve done a number of things that aren’t really my personal tastes when it comes to specifics/subjects/species, but as long as it doesn’t cross a “will not do” line then I don’t turn down the commission. Ultimately, I like making my commissioners happy, even if the particular subject matter isn’t my favorite – and I like being able to have such a wide variety of subjects and themes within the TF genre on my site. And also, I currently am doing this as a full time job, and would love to continue to do so - so that means doing a lot of art!


8) Somewhat related: have you ever had formal art training? Would you want to?

I took art classes through high school, but my major in college was completely unrelated (I got my master’s degree in Anthropology). That does tangentially relate in so far I took physical anthropology classes and studied anatomy and human evolution (looking at cognates of musculature and skeletal structures between humans and other species), but most of my art is self-taught.

I don’t regret not going to art school – I would have been so far in debt for college bills if so – but I would be interested in taking some figure drawing/etc classes if the opportunity presented itself. Back in the (tiny) city I used to live in a few years ago, they had had some extra-curricular community classes available that I tried to sign up for, but they never had enough signups for the class to make. I should look into it again now that I’ve moved.

9) Have you ever drawn something you really didn't want to draw?

If there is anything that truly crosses my line (underage characters, bathroom subjects, etc) then I politely tell the commissioner that it’s not a subject I’m comfortable depicting. I don’t judge, and in general, I don’t mind people asking if something isn’t well defined on my page if they’re not sure.

I don’t want to point fingers at specific commissions, but there have been some scenarios I really didn’t care for personally, but wasn’t offended by per se.

10) Finally, a question I like to ask the lady contributors.... what is your view on real world transformation? IE: plastic surgery and the like? Is that something for you or t'hell no?

I dunno – it’s not something I’ve done personally (I’m kind of boring I guess – I don’t even have a tattoo), and haven’t done anything more permanent than dying my hair. I think it’s fascinating when people do it – particularly more extreme body modifications. I’ve toyed with the idea of things like tooth caps or pointy ear modifications but doubt I’d have the guts to actually go through and make a permanent change like that. I mean, I don’t work somewhere where that would be an issue . I DO love costuming, even though I don’t do it as much any more and have a nice set of dental cap fangs that were custom made and some latex pointed ears, yellow contacts, etc that I love to wear around Halloween / Renaissance Festivals.

[RavenRift]

This is great, I love Arania's work, she was one of the first TF sites I came across. interesting because animal changes turns me off fast, and she has a lot of those, but her pure gender ones are truly worth checking every single month for.

[Scorch]

Originally Posted by Vengeance1701

5) You've sometimes come under criticism for your art. How do you feel when somebody claims your art never improves, etc, etc? In general, how do you deal with critics?

Most critics don’t talk to me face to face/email me directly but will post elsewhere. A good part of me avoids some of the message boards as a whole because I don’t like drama and negativity. It’s a niche enough community as it is and I think people should be supportive of each other.

I agree with this point, it's not so bad now, but often when people upload content that they've discovered, be it BE, TG, whatever, someone always complains about it, be it old content thats new to the poster or just not brilliant content. One reply that I got in regards to those complainers was "Beggers can't be choosers."

They shut up after that for a while. XD

[Vengeance1701]

Yeah, that's one of the things I think the Gov and the rest of the new moderator team has been tasked with...making this place friendlier.

[Dr. Otto]

Personally, I'm not all that cosy with the word "fetish". Every time I hear it, I think of Dennis Hopper chugging helium in BLUE VELVET. Or (shudder) the "Lust" victims from SEVEN. Specific things involving physical object objects, like shoes or cars. But TF is more of a state of mind than a physical object. The TF genre is a whole lot more complicated than what some disgusted, conservative "grown-up" might think of it.

Transformation can have a sexualized ingredient, for sure, but as a storyteller, I feel there's so much more to it than that. More often than not, the TF scenes in movies and books that linger with me are the ones that don't feature the "turn-on" factor. Take Franz Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS, or Osamu Tezuka's ODE TO KIRIHITO. These are tales about pathos and struggle. I won't lie that TF and TG can have its adolescent "Playboy centrefold" appeal for me, but it can just as easily appeal to my cerebral adult self, if I so choose.

In any case, I'm grateful that Arania shares similar thoughts on the subject. Having commissioned a few sequences from her myself in the past, I can say that her terrific personality makes up for some of the flaws in her artwork. I'd rather commission Arania than a five-star artist who behaves like a one-star twit.

[Scorch]

Originally Posted by Dr. Otto

Take Franz Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS, or Osamu Tezuka's ODE TO KIRIHITO. These are tales about pathos and struggle. I won't lie that TF and TG can have its adolescent "Playboy centrefold" appeal for me, but it can just as easily appeal to my cerebral adult self, if I so choose..

That's why I like what i've seen of Eleven, it's a painful TG, it's got mental struggle and Tess McVicker is hot as Nikki.

[MsMako]

These interviews are great, Vengeance1701. Really cool idea. Thanks to you and the people who took the time to do this.

MsMako

[edwardfandango]

Love this series you're doing, Vengeance. It's fascinating to hear the about all these people, especially Arania, whose work I consider to be a sort of "gateway drug" for many members of this community (myself included, obv).

[AdminstratorDraven]

Arania is pretty awesome all around. Quite a wide variety of material well executed.

Draven has Spoken