Artist ReChew: Hanabi Drift

Hello people!

Recently i was talking to a good friend of mine who also happens to be an artist and graphic designer in his spare time. After checking out some of him more recent stuff i asked him if he could do something for the site... He agreed, and in exchange i would like to share a bit about the Artist himself and some of his work. The interview is below..... But first, Look how awesome this is!

Great huh?! I feel it really captures me in my purest form lolol.

Interview~

Walnuts
Today I am joined by good friend and fantastic artist Andre Hanabi Drift! Men want him and Women want to be him! Welcome to Radiant Silver Spoon Andre, How have you been?

Andre

Haha, I've been well. my arm's practically a stump from all the drawing i've been doing lately but i'll live.

Walnuts
Good to hear it! So lets get started, first off, tell the audience a little about yourself, your art style and how you get started.

Andre

I'm 25 living in south London, I love lasagne and cookies (not together), and my favourite song of all time is R.E.M.'s losing my religion.

I'd describe my art style as "almost bara" because although I follow a history of manga style conventions I don't think i'd call myself a mangaka (comic artist)
as for how I got started started I was basically bored at school and started doodling, I didn't put a pen down for about 15 years and here I am


Walnuts
Can you describe Bara to the people out there... and lets face it you may need to describe Manga also haha.

Andre

Haha, well Manga is a term used for the Japanese style of drawing comic books, things like Dragonball, Sailor Moon and Pokemon are the more mainstream side of it that made a strong hold here in the west

within manga there are many subgenres

Bara is should not to be confused with Shonen-Ai (boys love) or it's more R-rated cousin Yaoi which tend to feature very feminine pretty boys

Bara is written for gay guys by gay guys so the men tend to be more... well manly

Walnuts

So we could say its basically a Masculine/Muscled sub genre of manga, with a sometimes adult theme?

Andre

Yes yes

very much so

-Andre Reaches for a Cookie, dropping crumbs everywhere. I pretend not to notice but the OCD inside me is freaking out....-

Walnuts
So what would you say gives you the inspiration to draw? Is it certain times? certain situations? certain musics?

Andre
Hmmm, I usually get inspiration at really weird times, like at 3 in the morning haha

I find that music definitely helps me concentrate
I even have a spotify play list specifically for when I'm at work

my biggest inspiration probably comes from talking with other artists, having that community to support me definitely keeps me focused


Walnuts

Awesome, so if you had to recommend an artist to us (asides from yourself) who are you drawing inspiration from currently?

Andre

my darling Emi is an amazing artist who is always great to bounce ideas off of, in fact we tend to be very good at breaking each other out of artistic blocks. Mosskat is also a very talented artist, she just has a natural grace when it comes to setting up scenes, she also kicks me in the pants if I start slacking.
Nickie Charles is also awesome as is my beloved Sable-chan who is a sweet heart.

Walnuts

Woah, sounds like you have a great community there. I have also seen Emi's stuff... she is fantastic! Might get her to do something as well one day haha.

Well Andre, as always its been a pleasure

before i let you get off to your land of art and imagination

i would like to ask you to let my readers in on a secret about you that not many people know!

Andre

I'm a natural blonde.... haha, no I kid

hmmm....

when I was younger I had a brief crush on Jackie Chan, ah the innocence of youth

Jackie Chan?? Really??

Walnuts

LOL! Hilarious!

And with that, i will let you get back to work, thank you for spending some time with me today.

From myself and the viewers of Radiant Silver Spoon i would like to wish you all the best in your future works!

Andre

No problem, hope you feel better

Walnuts

Cheers (sniffle/cough/splutter)

~End~

If you liked any of the stuff you saw here feel free to check out his DeviantArt page HERE. You can also become a fan of his work at his Facebook page found HERE.

Now im off to nurse my Manflu... its serious stuff lol...

Until Next time guys
\(^_^)/