Interview with Artist Busymagpie by Anérea

Interview with Artist Busymagpie

Focusing on mostly character portraits from The Silmarillion (as well as the Chinese novel and TV series, Módào Zǔshī/MDZS/The Untamed), Dorothea's gen fanart appears under the moniker Busymagpie, while she posts her spicier works as Nastymagpie.

Although her fanart is now predominantly digital, coming from a background of traditional art—including pencil, ink, and watercolor—Doro's portraits retain the lovely feel of natural media. Her characters' features remain consistent and immediately recognisable (whether clothed or naked!) despite her style having evolved over the years. One particular aspect of her work that really stands out for me is her feel for anatomy and especially her skill in depicting body language that conveys an emotional story in each of her characters.

Because The Silmarillion inevitably veers off into the tragic, it is always a delight to catch little moments of characters enjoying the simple pleasures of everyday life in between their dramatic life-changing events, and Dorothea's art delivers great dollops of these moments for us to enjoy vicariously.

By way of an introduction, can you share how you got into Tolkien fandom and making fanart?

Funnily enough when I was younger I was convinced LotR was overrated and I disliked it solely because it was popular, even though at this point I had neither seen the movies nor read the books. I was an edgy teen. So finally one evening in 2012, when I was bored out of my mind, the first Hobbit movie was in the theaters and my sister and her then-boyfriend (who is also a Tolkien fan) asked me if I wanted to come along and watch it with them. I had nothing better to do so I went, and I loved it. After the movie my sister‘s then-boyfriend asked me if I wanted to know more about all the other stories of the Legendarium and continued to talk about Gondolin. It was like sitting around a campfire and listening to long forgotten stories. Needless to say, I was hooked from that moment on, so he gave me The Silmarillion to read. And as I said, I was an edgy teen, so of course I already had a tumblr. It was only a matter of time until I discovered people were posting about this new found love of mine on the internet.

Art has always been my most favorite hobby and I can remember making fanart for all sorts of stuff, but it wasn‘t much. It takes me a long while of liking something before I make fanart for it but, occasionally, I fall head over heels for something and it doesn‘t take me that long. I think The Silmarillion took me a bit longer actually, but when I discovered that people were making and posting fanart, and since I loved The Silmarillion so much, I just had to at some point. Even though it took me a while to be confident enough to post it. That was in 2017, my last year of high school. (I had done some Tolkien fanart before that, but that stuff is better left hidden.)

What is the story behind your username?

Let‘s not talk about my first tumblr username … again, I was an edgy teen. Thankfully I came up with busymagpie. I was trying to come up with brand names for something else at work. The idea was to pair an animal starting with the letter M with some kind of attribute. Busymagpie was one of those, but I liked it so much that I took it home, so to say. I probably liked it so much because magpies have always been some of my favorite birds and I do like shiny stuff, too. I‘m also always busy with one thing or another.

Please tell us a bit about your art skills and background.

As a child I really enjoyed drawing, like almost every other child does, but I didn‘t take art that seriously until I was around 14 years old. That‘s when I got my first tablet. It was a simple drawing tablet without a screen. I‘ve since moved on to display tablets because I can‘t get used to looking at my screen and not seeing what my hand does. Before I got my first tablet I used primarily watercolor, ink, and graphite. I am incredibly lucky that my parents, and my aunt in particular, were and still are very supportive of me drawing constantly. My aunt once took me along to a weekend long life drawing course when I was around fifteen years old, and I focussed on improving anatomy ever since then.

Because of my parents‘ support and art being my favorite hobby, I wanted to get into art school after high school, but I would have needed a portfolio containing at least twenty-five pieces, and I didn‘t have that many that were good enough, nor did I have the time and energy to make them in that short amount of time. So I just had to try and learn all that stuff on my own. I don‘t know if my skill would be more advanced if I had gotten into art school then, but it‘s also fun this way.

I‘ve basically always been drawing every day. Back in the day I did a lot more traditional work and I still buy new sketchbooks even though I rarely use them anymore. I don‘t want to say I‘ve completely turned to digital work because there is still something about traditional materials that‘s so special. There is something about not being able to effortlessly get rid of your mistakes and having to work with what you got that makes it interesting. I still want to do stuff in graphite, because to me it has this nice, warm feel to it. That‘s why I‘m using a brush with a graphite look for my line art in my digital pieces. It makes everything look a bit softer and imperfect.

I mainly consider myself to be a fanartist, even though I‘ve done other original stuff as well. I sometimes get to draw for clients at work, and I have also published my own graphic novel. In the future I‘d like to do some more original stuff as well as fanart. Making that graphic novel was fun and I‘m honestly considering making another one, but this time around I would like to plan things out more, come up with a better story and take my time.

Would you please share a little of your art creation process with us?

It‘s all over the place. Drawing is relaxing for me, so most of the time I just start doodling and see if anything comes from it. This way the ideas start forming while I‘m drawing. Sometimes I know I want to draw a certain character in a certain setting, doing something specific, or I just want to draw a pairing being cute together, so I just start somewhere and see where it takes me. I also like to scroll through Pinterest and look at all kinds of stuff to inspire me. Sometimes it‘s certain poses, sometimes colors, sometimes the overall mood of a picture or artwork and sometimes it‘s just a small detail that sparks an idea. This is when a picture is starting to form in my head and I try my best to put it down on paper. That doesn‘t always work and sometimes I realize that it just looked better in my head than it actually does as an artwork, so I scrap it.

I delete most of the stuff that I draw when it feels like I‘m not going anywhere with a sketch. I try to not do that as often anymore, because most sketches don‘t look bad, I just don‘t know what to do with them going forward. But I think it‘s better to save them for later. You never know when that one silly sketch will itself spark an idea and you‘re glad you still have it.

That being said, it only happens rarely that I actually plan something out. But when I do, I have a concrete idea of what I want to depict and how I want the mood to be, then I start planning around that, like composition, colors, and lighting. I make little thumbnail sketches (I like to draw those in my physical sketchbook. It‘s got something to do with the fact that I can‘t just scrap it there; I have to actually physically erase something if I want to change it and I can‘t erase too much because then the drawing will become too messy, so sometimes I’ve got to work with what I have.) then redraw my little sketches digitally and work on them until I‘m satisfied. Those pieces take me the longest, because I know what I want them to look like and I can‘t settle for anything less. And that‘s also why I don‘t do a lot of those. I want to do more of these in the future, though.

 

What role does fanart (or art in general) play in your life?

Not to be dramatic, but art is life for me, haha! No, but seriously, I‘m not sure what I‘d do if I couldn‘t draw. It feels like drawing is basically all I do, and it‘s distracting to me when I don‘t feel so well. I‘ve always been interested in art and love to visit galleries when I can. It was my favorite subject in school, and I was sure I wanted to do something creative (if not art, because that‘s hard) as a job.

Art, and fanart in particular, is a way for me to tell stories. I‘m horrible at writing, but I have these neat pictures and stories in my head and I need to tell them in some way or another.

Art has also been a way for me to get to know people. I‘ve met some lovely friends through the Silmarillion fandom and I don‘t think we‘d be in contact if I didn‘t post my drawings.

Does fanfiction play a role in your art, or are you simply inspired by your own ideas? And how about fanart by other artists?

I enjoy reading fanfiction. Sometimes authors present me with a concept that I haven‘t even thought about or a particular line sparks inspiration, even if it doesn‘t have anything to do with what they‘re writing about. They also make me want to draw certain characters or pairings sometimes. I don‘t think I have ever illustrated a scene from a fanfic, even though some scenes are written so vividly that I almost feel the need to illustrate them.

Almost the same goes for fanart. Sometimes the composition, colors or the characters depicted inspire me to draw. There are so many great creators out there with great ideas and concepts.

The expressiveness of your characters has always stood out for me, and especially the way they so often appear to be in an enviable state of bliss. Can you tell us a bit about this choice of theme, and also how you achieve such eloquence in both body language and facial expressions?

First of all, thank you! That‘s a good question and I‘m not sure I really have an answer to that. I prefer bittersweet, sad and tragic stories, not so much the ones that are consistently happy and lighthearted. My best guess is that I want to give those tragic characters the happiness they deserve. Their stories are already sad, so I might as well give them something nice for once.

Something that I‘ve discovered over the years is that I put a lot of myself, my experiences, or my own wishes and wants into my art. It‘s especially obvious to me in my shipping art. The “I want what they have” is strong there, but I think it also applies to some of my other stuff.

I love how body language and facial expressions tell you all you need to know about a person. Sometimes there are no words needed to tell a story and, like I said earlier, I‘m not good at writing, so I had to get better at characters‘ expressiveness through other means. I love people-watching and it definitely helps with improving drawing body language. Movies are also great for that because you get some great close-ups of even the subtlest of expressions. Really any type of reference is good, but I have to say it‘s most helpful when you act it out yourself, because then you actually feel which muscles are moved. That‘s why artists look angry when they draw angry characters or full on grin when they‘re scribbling away on their tablet or on paper.

Even the briefest glance through your art is sufficient to know who your Silm OTP is! What aspects of Russingon initially attracted you, and keep you coming back for more? 

Yeah I‘m not really subtle about that. I think it‘s their friendship. They are meant to be together in some way or another. Personally I think there has to be friendship first before you‘re able to develop feelings for someone. It‘s the basis of every romantic relationship. The friendship between Maedhros and Fingon is canon, so perfect conditions for me to ship them!

Another great thing about them is that we basically just get bullet points of what their relationship is like and that leaves so much creative freedom to play around with and make their relationship fit your own personal taste. I can put a lot of myself into them and that‘s what makes them so interesting to me.

Your spicy art is posted under NastyMagpie (and is actually my introduction to your art). What inspired you to start creating your spicy illustrations? I’m sure they pose unique challenges. (Not least persuading Maedhros and Fingon to pose for you!) Would you like to take us behind the scenes? (I recall reading that the reason you got a particular job was because the portfolio you submitted contained only drawings of bums! Is there a link here? I mean, apart from the fact that your bums are just yummy!)

Haha that‘s great! Actually I think I mainly have other fanartists to thank for that, who posted their NSFW pieces on Tumblr when it was still allowed. Anatomy is fun to draw, especially when you have even just a little bit of understanding of what‘s going on. The human body has nice and interesting shapes; you get to exaggerate the poses as much as you want and you don‘t have to cover up all your hard work of getting the anatomy right with clothing. Since I love anatomy and I think the human form is pleasant to look at, it only makes sense to draw NSFW pieces.

I recently talked to a friend about these kinds of pieces and she said something I actually never quite realized myself before. I mentioned earlier how I put a lot of myself in my pieces. She said looking at those pieces is like watching me explore sex and intimacy on the page, and I think she‘s right about that. I don‘t really have any experience with relationship stuff, so drawing NSFW and shippy art in general is simultaneously a challenge for me and also one of the reasons I like doing it, because with every piece I get to know myself a bit better.

(Talking so openly about these things is what got me my job, when my employer asked me about that one piece in my portfolio that contained several sketches of butts. So it‘s not really the drawing itself that got me my job, but me being a little pervert. ;P )

What is the best advice you’ve received as an artist that other artists may find helpful?

One that probably everyone has heard their art teacher preaching is that you have to learn the rules before you can break them. I always wanted to draw in that manga-esque style that I so liked, but my art teacher told me again and again I should rather focus on drawing in a more realistic style, because that‘s how you learn. She was right, even if I didn‘t want to hear it at that time and I also didn‘t listen until years later when I found out on my own. It probably could have saved me some time.

Another one is: Don‘t throw away/delete old pieces or pieces that you don‘t like. Don‘t rip out pages of your sketchbook just because you think they‘re not good enough. Maybe that‘s the case, maybe they are bad, but that‘s all part of learning. No one is perfect from the beginning and no one is perfect all the time. Keep those bad drawings, those old drawings, and come back to them later to look at and see how much you improved. Nothing is more motivating than seeing your own progress. (It‘s also fun to laugh at the really bad stuff.)

 

What do you hope viewers will receive from your work?

Comfort, I think. Although not all my pieces are “comfortable”. So I guess I want them to feel whatever emotion I tried to convey. But it‘s mostly comfort.

Just for fun: If you could spend a day with any Tolkien character(s) or Tolkien fandom OC(s), who would you choose to be with? Where or when would it be, and what would you do?

I don‘t know why, but I think it would be immensely fun to have a spa day with Finrod.

I‘d also need Beleg to teach me archery, because I‘m so bad at it, even though I‘ve been doing it for years.

It's very difficult choosing only a few of Dorothea/Busymagpie's illustrations to share with you, so I recommend heading over to her Tumblr or Instagram to enjoy some more, and to AO3 for her spicy art. She also shares timelapses of some of her illustrations in progress on TikTok.