Hi, you can call me Sky or Paula c: [she/her]
I´m a digital artist from Europe!
I specialize in drawing original characters! I do both, sfw and nsfw art. My focus are anthros, ferals, dragons and humans. I draw a huge variety of things basically. ^w^
My favorite thing to draw however are my personal characters. They help me to deal with boredom and bring me the most joy. On some days I do nothing but art and daydreaming because it keeps me alive ┐(‘～`；)┌.
Quick Note About Graphics: Any graphic you see on my website is self made (other peoples buttons and badges not included obv.) Borders, character art, decor, photos etc. And are not for free use/copy. One exception, are some free backgrounds on a few OC profiles. However I generally try to make most graphics myself because I just like it more. Backgrounds which aren't selfmade will probably be replaced in the future. (when I have time and ideas)
Last Status...
Lui
The character I identify myself the most with online and offline is Lui.
He´s a very very special comfort character and a figure I started developing way before I even got into social media. You will see me drawing him a lot, use him as my icon on sites and more. He is not my Sona however. I don´t really have interest in having one and every past attempt at making one ended up in a disconnect with the character. I simply love to use my comfort OC as my "representation" but he is not me. I use him to escape into a different world sometimes..daily. Along with many of my other characters.
More...
oh look a ton of extra stuff. My opinions and everything I feel like sharing and writting down.
I kinda use this to dump information.
Q and A
A little general "questions and answers" box filled with what I feel comfortable sharing about me! If you want to read in depth about art related questions, go here
Do you have pets?
If springtails and isopods count, yes. Otheriwse, no.
Did you had pets at any time in your life?
Yes, 2 bunnies when I was 9 years old. Many caterpillars that became butterflies, tadpoles and grasshopers. I never had a dog or a cat.
Is skykristal.art your first website?
yes and no. Its my first actual, serious website that I coded! But I had a few weird little pages before in my life. A little forum site thing related to animal crossing, a carrd and also tried wix for a few years. None of this was even close to as big and well made as this one though. And I had no idea before discovering Neocities how to set everything up and host code, especially for free.
Why "Hidden World" ?
The main reason and meaning behind this name, are my OCs. But in a few different ways. First my OCs were inside my head for over 10 years. I never drew them, I never wrote about them. Heck I didn't even mention them anywhere or to anyone. Not to friends, not to family. Which means I had, and still have a big "Hidden World" inside my head. What I write and draw is only a very very small % of it actually. It's also simply a TON of stuff.
The other reason, is that I'm an unknown artist, or well turned into one. I used to have a big following actually (40k instagram in 2016). Here, is my world. My art, my interests, my ocs. Everything I do and did after my "popular phase". Not a lot of people view my work today nor do I have millions of followers on a platform. My world, "Me" is hidden in a way. Nice and hidden in a beautiful cave. Which, is actually the inspiration for my website theme. It's dark, underground, inside something with glowing lights, plants and crystals. I love this theme.. it gives me inner peace. And I also feel most comfy covered under my blanket irl, too.
Are you self taught?
I am a fully self taught artist, yes. I had art classes in elementary school and middle school which are literally... nothing. The stuff we did there wasn't teaching me anything serious. Other than what kind of art exists in different places in the world and painting a tree with a potato piece. I specialize in character design and digital painting, which is something I learned and discovered entirely on my own. There was also no one in my school who was into that type of stuff. Or at least nobody I knew.
Are you a Furry?
No! I am not a furry and I never had a fursona. I have had feral wolf ocs for a few years and drew animals all the time before I got into drawing my private ocs and sticked my scared ass into drawing humans. But they were ocs, not sonas. I occationally draw furries and I visit furry art websites to share and sell too. I am a "furry artist" at most. Furries aren't my primary interest though. And almost all the time today when I draw a furry, its a commission order or an auction I'm running. I don't, or super rarely draw furries for myself. (furries = canines, furry dragons, cats and so on in typical "furry" style).
Are you ....extra?
I'm very extra, with a lot of different things. Art interests, styles, subjects, food, drinks, textures. I'm overall extremely sensitive to a lot of things, and I hate it very much. Makes my life much harder.
Do you like advise you didn't ask for?
This depends. For art, I don't like it but this also has to do with how people put it and that most of the time I already am aware of literally everything people write to me. If I need and want help, I specifically ask. For other things yes, I do like it. Random facts and people sharing their knowlage is something I like quite a lot. Especailly when having convos about topics I'm barely familiar with. I appreciate tips and suggestions a lot in cases like that.
Artist Background..
From 2012/13-2015 I started drawing digitally for the first time using my Nintendo 3DS XL. Colors!3D was what mainly brought me into digital art and OCs. My first actual "OC" (that I labeled as such) was ChocoBii. I used to draw him so so often but unfortunately, I decided to delete most of the artwork back then. I went under the name "RainyBii" for a short time until I found my new and permanent name "Skykristal" which I identify myself with.
Back in 2015-2018 I was a traditional artist with my focus on fanart and cute chibi critters for the most part for a few years under the name skydiamond_art. (You might have seen my work before) Later then changed back to what I did before, digital OC art! At one point I completely lost interest in both, traditional drawing and fanart and spent my time drawing my own creations again which is one of my favorite things to do til today.
At some point, I started to notice that there´s a market for commissions and YCH which was something I was very interested in. Making money with what I love doing the most was always a dream for me. So, I started to slowly get into it. My start was everything but easy, but after a few years of struggling, I found my place and started to get noticed more, and got my first customers, which was super exciting. I´ve come a long way with my art journey and I´m very thankful for everyone who supported me and still does!
Beginnings of "serious" art (2012)I have also drawn before this time, however It wasnt anything serious or something I still have photos of. PS: cringe.
Fav things to draw..
I enjoy drawing original Characters, backgrounds and story telling as well as working with warm & cold hues.
- - Masculine characters
- - Dragons & monsters
- - Shirtless men ^^"
- - Scenes
Least fav things to draw
- - Sketches
- - Anime
- - cutesie art
Working on...
- Human anatomy
- Complex Environments
- Consistent style in semi realism
Series..
I´ve watched the following series or.. I´m still watching them today. These are tiny reviews.
Code
This entire website is coded from scratch, well that and with the use of a css framework. In my case, it´s bootstrap! Along with a bunch of things I made myself. I´ve been coding since my DA days. Around 2015 or so I tried doing html using tables back then. After that, never touched html again or even css. But a few years later, when I started using Toyhouse, I taught myself a lot more over time. Because I wanted to either edit or create layouts for my characters. Toyhouse runs on Bootstrap as well (an earlier version though) and because of that it has become the most comfortable for me. Note: almost any JS heavily relys on tutorials and me taking parts of other code. I don't understand this language at all.
Inside the site: CSS/HTML/JS / Bootstrap 5.1.3 / PhotoViewer 3.6.2
What do I draw with?
I was always an android tablet user. It´s the only thing I´m comfortable with since I got into digital art after the usage of my Nintendo. I upgraded to a Samsung Tab S7 (wifi) in the past. Which is my very first tablet that isn´t low range. + It comes with an S pen. A rubber pen stylus is awful compared to the S pen experience. Which is what I used for many years on older samsung tabs (I started with a Tab 4 (7.0) ) If you are also an android tab user and are looking for something, I can recommend the S7.
Software?
I use LayerpaintHD since roughly 8 years. I learned pretty much everything with it and have my own brushes and settings. I scrolled trough the playstore in search of a drawing program I could enjoy and somehow sticked to this one, which at the time I had never heard of before. I didn´t clicked with all the other programs which is why I haven´t sticked to any popular ones. (Fun fact: I used a ripped version of LayperpaintHD before actually buying the app back in 2018. I did because I couldn´t really afford anything at that time. Buying it is worth it! It still gets updated and new features and improvements get thrown out here and there.)
However I also use Ibis paint but only to make final touches such as filters and text, which my regular program does not offer (yet), unfortunately.
For Animations and everything that moves, I use either flipaclip, Ezgif or Motionleap (for effects). More rarely I also work with AnimeEffects for tween animations, I´m bad at it tho..
Fav brushes
- My favorite brush to sketch is just the regular pen
- Airbrush (at around 3-7px depending on canvas size) is my favorite brush for lineart. As it gives the lines a smoother look which I prefer.
- Hard watercolor brush is my absolute fav and most used brush. I do a lot of painting work / lineless. And even in lined art I use this brush to render as well. In mix with the "mix brush" to blend colors or create depth and shapes. By placing roughly where I want my lighting and shadows to be and start "mixing" it together. I generally use the mix brush more than applying the shading and lights normally. It usually gives a more cleaner, smoother look. Can be seen pretty well in clothing folds for example.
Interests
Animal Crossing
Art (drawing, crafting, music etc)
Dragons (mainly anthro)
Side cut hair styles 😫
Plants
Coding
Writing
Worldbuilding
Watching series/movies
Horror
Neutral
Most fandoms, I´m generally barely into anything and have no opinion
Anime
Controversial Youtubers. Drama can be entertaining but I don´t care much about fights
Art Youtubers + animation community
Cartoons
Dislikes
Majority of popular "Influencers"
Art Mainstream
Extreme clutter on websites
F4F (follow for follow) aka no genuine interest in content and only following because they follow me. Not my thing, never was
Pure Vanilla (in things like milk or ice cream)