The Definitive Guide to Leotaku!
Eric 'Leotaku' Hoang is a digital artist, a painter, and a designer of sprites and games, from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Nearing 10 years, with over 1000 pictures under his belt, the modest deviantART veteran's reputation precedes the thousands of eyes which have gazed upon his work. Not bad for someone who is barely in his 20s!
Having discussed with the Taku Bell Supreme for the last couple years he's also talented at being a human being. Never too proud of his work to fuel an ego, nor too sincere to refuse emotion when needed, the balance of the artist behind the art is as challenging when so many demand constantly. Indeed his transition from crayons to virtual colours are paved with steps of history. Ambitions have changed into determinations and have resulted in a style which seperates him from the average pursuer to anime/manga. In fact it's unique to approach Leotaku as both an artist and a person because you get a geniune feel of respect and amiration in his presence. He's glad to have talents to share and only hopes people enjoy it as much as I do.
Currently the bulk of his fame would be on his "DragonBall"-themed work: originally created by Akira Toriyama back in 1984. Eric has several series of his own in 'The Reaper', and 'Goden Legends', which have some merit of success in terms of formulating storytelling and narrative within a pose or a character's features in body stance and facial expressions. The variety of his OCs are what keeps him driven to greater prospects. Hoang's art has come a long way from merely 'tracing' the forms of masculine/feminine muscle structure into a full-fledged design proud of Toriyama's own. I recently spoke with the artist to parlay his thoughts on celebrating his decade of draughtsmanship:
1. First of all where does the name Leotaku originate?
"Leo" is my zodiac thingy, and "Otaku" is from when I was into anime and manga, though I'm not really into it anymore. It just would've been too much trouble to change my name in the various places I used the alias to reflect my now lack of fondness for anime and manga.
However, I have since dropped the name when I ditched my old deviantART account and started a fresh account. I'm kinda trying to distance myself from that name, where I can.
2. How long have you been an artist?
I've been into drawing ever since I was a kid (mostly from the influence of my brother), but I didn't get serious with it and actually try to learn and improve 'til around late 2002. That's when I got a scanner and was finally able to post my pictures online and get feedback from people.
3. Who would be your main inspirations?
These days, I don't particularly try to draw from other artists for style or technique "inspirations". At this point, I kinda prefer just taking what I already know or have done and experimenting freely.
In the past though, there have been several influences on my work, such as Akira Toriyama, Joe Madureira, Masamune Shirow, and UDON.
I'm also fond of the work of Travis Charest, Alex Ross, Bruce Timm, and various artists online, though I don't think I've really reflected that in my own work to a notable amount.
4. Why does your art seperate itself from the norm? I notice you seem to dedicate a lot of effort to making skin look so soft on the canvas which artists tend to neglect. Gives a sense of motion.
I kinda have an individuality complex. I often (not always) like doing things that aren't as common, and avoiding things that everyone else already does. I don't want to be like everyone else, so I look for things to separate myself. This is actually one of the reasons I stopped like the anime style; it's become so painfully common that I got sick of it from over-exposure. I don't hate it, and I don't care if anyone else uses it, but I make a point not to use it myself.
I sometimes aim to do more uncommon things BECAUSE it's uncommon, such as drawing familiar characters in styles that are different from how they're usually drawn. I've already seen them in their regular style, and drawing them / seeing them in a new way would be much more interesting to me. Why would I want to look at something I've already seen countless times before when I could see something new instead?
5. Would you say Scithia is a mascot to exemplify your style and design?
If you mean style as in drawing style, then no. I tend to experiment and jump around a lot in regard to drawing style, so I rarely stay consistent between pictures for very long. I don't know if I really have any completely representative art style since I haven't really used any drawing or colouring style for an extremely long period of time (say, several years or so).
As for design though, I think she does kind of reflect my enjoyment of designing characters and making a point of doing something different with something familiar. Scithia's a grim reaper. Grim reapers are usually depicted as skeletons in black robes. I COULD'VE designed a grim reaper to be something generic like that, but where's the fun in that?
When designing characters, depending on the character or theme, I like to take the core elements of what it's supposed to be and put my own spin on it. So that's what I did when it came to designing a grim reaper character.
6. You're not just known for being an artist but also a designer of gamemaker interactive animations. Do you see yourself being an artist full-time or is there another calling in life?
There was a time when I would've loved to be an artist as my actual profession / career. Perhaps doing comic art, or more recently, I would've loved to do concept art and stuff for video games. These days though, I've kinda strayed from those dreams. I still enjoy art, but I don't think it's something I could do for someone else as my job. I generally need to be in complete control of what I draw in order to get enjoyment out of it, and complete control probably isn't what I'd have when working for someone else. Still, drawing probably would still be better than some boring office job.
As for making games, that was just a little hobby of mine. I never really saw myself doing it professionally 'cause I'm not a programmer or anything like that at all. A job related to video games would be cool, but I wouldn't be able to do the programming side of things.
7. What's Canada like to you?
Eh (uh...no pun intended), I don't think too much of it, or at least not the part where I live. These urban views get boring and ugly. I'd love to visit or live in a part of the world with more natural landscapes and less artificial structures.
8. You're known for DragonBallZ pictures. Do you fear it'll typecast what people know about your art?
Fear it? I've already experienced it. Rather than go into it again, this is already here to elaborate:
http://leo-taku.deviantart.com/journal/16002557/
9. How many lines from Caddyshack could you name?
Let's see...this...plus those lines...plus the ones near the end...carry the 3...
Zero.
10. What's your stance on erotic art? Do you prefer to be known as a 'clean' artist rather than a 'dirty' one?
Ideally, I'd like to be equally appreciated for both since I put the same amount of effort into both. That doesn't quite happen. Most people, as far as I know, only like one side of my pictures. OK, that's fine.
But what REALLY bothers me is when someone gets all pissy at my adult pictures. I'm free to do whatever the hell I want, just like people like that are free to avoid adult pictures if it's not their thing. I'm not forcing anyone to look at them, so what's their problem? Apparently, some people are too mentally deficient to know how to avoid looking at pictures that have subject matter they hate, but they have plenty of energy to be bitchy about it.
I have over 1000 pictures online, and adult pictures make up roughly 30% of those pictures. Those people don't seem to realize that the other 70% of my pictures aren't adult, and only take the time to whine about the 30% that they hate.
11. Double-Question here: If someone wanted to request art from you when would be the best times and what would be the charges?
I don't do free pictures anymore because too many people don't have the gratitude to say a simple "thanks" after I do something for them. They just disappear once they get what they want. So fuck them. I only do commissions now, in regard to drawing for someone else. I'm pretty much free to do one at any time, but I unfortunately don't have an easy method of payment, such as Paypal.
I've had to resort to alternate methods of payment, such as requesting that they get some stuff for me from online stores or something. Price-wise, I'm pretty flexible and let the person give me an offer. Two people have agreed to such methods, though it's not like I get many commission requests in the first place. Most people expect me to do something for free. Uh...NO.
12. What's planned for the future?
World domination! This place needs some serious cleaning up.
13. Cats or Dogs?
Either one.
14. Chocolate or Chips?
I don't especially like either one.
15. Is there anything you'd like to address to your fans?
Thanks for the support! All five of you. I appreciate it.
I don't think I have many real fans.
16. Finally, where can people find you on the world wide web?
My deviantART page has all my non-adult work and a little adult work.
http://eric-3.deviantart.com/
My WWOEC page has all my adult work.
http://leotaku.wwoec.com/
I have a personal site as well, which, at this time, is the only place where all my Game Maker games are, but I don't know how much longer that site will be up for. Whatever the case, it's not being updated anymore.
http://leotaku.avalanchestudios.net/
Hope this helps, Dan.
Sure does Eric. Thanks for your time. May the next ten years show a new peak in your work and a far higher state of happiness than what we are enjoying now. I look forward to those times. In the meantime I hope I can be a fan to ALL of his art, rather than just some, which in itself will be quite the journey.
Until then take care Eric! ^___^
(All pictures used with Permission and Copyright to Leotaku 1999-2008, All Rights Reserved. 'Leotaku' is a TM of Eric Hoang).
