Saturday, August 27, 2011
An interview with NickyToons
11:33 PM | Geplaatst door
Liesewiesje
Most of you have probably noticed the cartoon on the right of my blog that is inspired by a photo of myself. Want to know who made it? The incredible talented Dutch girl Nicky Rutten. First of all, I want to say something important about her NickyToons. She spends a lot of time in making those cartoons and I really can't understand how people just take over her cartoons and publish them on the internet without crediting her. Please people, if you use her cartoons, credit her because she spends a lot of time and effort on them. People sometimes even publish the NickyToons and remove the logo, really not nice I find.
Nicky Rutten is 24 years old and has been making for 4 years NickyToons, from album covers to celebrities to movie posters. She has even made dolls out of them which look awesome and some celebrities have even seen her NickyToons, one of them Taylor Momsen even wanted to keep her NickyToon, haha. That says a lot right? She is talented for sure. I just love the way she makes the cartoons, the cute eyes and the whole cartoon is just adorable. I really wish her all the best and for you readers, I took an interview with her so that you can get to know her a little better.
Hey Nicky! First of all your artwork and your cartoons or should I say NickyToons are amazing! How did you come up with them, where did you get your inspiration and how long have you been making them?
My cartoons started about 3 to 4 years ago with a very simple doodle of Avril Lavigne. I quite liked it and finished off the sketch to a real drawing. I recieved many positive reactions about it and started making more of them. The cartoons grew out in a style that my friends started to call NickyToons. I liked the name so I have been calling them like that ever since.
Ah, that's interesting to hear how it started. Do you have any favourite NickyToons or do you have a top 5 of your NickyToons?
My favourite Toons change quite a bit, right now I think my favourites are the album covers. I am trying to re-do the cd covers of my favourite albums to make my itunes and cd collection a bit more unique.
This is her top 5 (I will show you my top 5 in the end of this blog post) :
I can imagine that it must be difficult to choose your favourite NickyToons, they are all wonderful so can I assume you love to make album covers the most ? If so, why do you like making album covers so much?
Haha yes, It's just a project I started, it's fun to capture the album and the music on it in my own style.
Talking about album covers, which one do you like the most and which one was the most difficult to make?
Right now the Goodbye Lullaby one from Avril Lavigne is my favourite. The hardest one to make was the Tri-Polar album cover from Sick Puppies. It was a lot of work to get the cartoons in place on the cover, and get the actual photo's of the bandmembers out of it.
Oh yes the album cover from Goodbye Lullaby is really amazing but on the other hand I just like them all, haha. You truly are talented. Now which NickyToon in general was the biggest challenge ever that you made? The Harry Potter ones or the Disney Princesses one or another one?
The Harry Potter poster for sure! Since I made all three characters and I had to blend them into the poster. I think I spent about 15 hours in total on that final piece. It was a lot of photoshop work.
Wow, you must spent a lot of time on your NickyToons, was that Harry Potter poster also the one that took the most time to make out all of your Nickytoons?
As for the cartoons yes, but I have also made dolls, those were even more time to make then a cartoon. Since they are cartoons made in 3D by clay, painted and I made little boxes for them.
Ah yes, I have seen those dolls, you have also given some of those dolls to celebrities right? What was their reaction and how do you make them?
For the dolls, I have a video of the reactions of Paramore when I gave it to them 2 years ago. They were very lovely and seemed to really like it. They even mentioned them in a recent interview. I also gave a set to the Sick Puppies, they were really impressed and even made it to their blog. It was nice to hear that they got the dolls back home in one piece when I met them again a few months later.
That's so nice that Paramore and The Sick Puppies responded like that to your artwork, really happy for you.
That's so nice that Paramore and The Sick Puppies responded like that to your artwork, really happy for you.
(You can see the video of Paramore's reaction here https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=472110426559 )
Avril holding an AvrilBandaids - NickyToons banner in NYC
What did you think when Taylor Momsen had seen your cartoon? It's a pity that you weren't there to give it in a person but at least you had an awesome friend who did that for you. I hope for you that you can meet her in person someday.
Yes I was honestly dissapointed they didn't do a signing at the festival where I went to this summer. I took a cartoon with me just in case. My friend told me she didn't want to give back the Toon he took to get signed by her, she wanted to keep it! So I still need to give her one someday.
Haha, that's awesome that she wanted to keep them. Do you still do requests by the way? You used to do a lot of requests but then stopped after a while because it took too much time and I understood that decision but if someone really wants one, do you ask something in return?
Right now I only do paid commissions, really considering the time I put into them they are really not expensive ;-) I just came to a point in my life where this is not just a hobby anymore, I really hope that one day I can earn a living by drawing cartoons all day.
So how do you cope with people who just take over your cartoons and don't even credit you?
I know it's the risk of putting your work online, after finding my work on many different websites I had to make the tag bigger, so it would be harder for people to remove them. I just wish people would respect all the time that we put in our arwork. I just wished I wouldn't need the logo's, don't like it when they are covering half of the cartoon, sadly I need them.
Yes, it's a pity that you have to put a watermark on it, but I understand it and I think many other people as well.
It's only a logo, but it does help people to find me by looking for "NickyToons".
I'm glad that you don't stop making them though, what do you do when a person doesn't stop taking over your cartoons and doesnt even credit you?
I try to contact the person first, ask if they can at least give me credit. If no I will have to contact the website and ask to have it removed. I wish I didn't need to, but I just can't have my work spread without a logo.
So would you ever consider making a Gossip Girl Nickytoon? I just had to ask as a big fan, haha
Haha I actually did, lots of times, just kept putting it off since there are so many characters to make at once. It will be a very big one that takes a lot of time. But dont't worry I'll promise you there will be one, one day!
Alright, I bet the Gossip Girl fans would find that awesome.
Have you already made cartoons of TV shows?
If so, which ones and are there TV shows where you would like to make a cartoon from?
I made a Pretty Little Liars cartoon some time ago. It even got posted on their official Facebook, it was very nice promotion for me. I also did a Glee Toon, which also happens to be very popular on the internet, maybe I should make more TV shows toons haha.
Haha, yeah, TV shows are pretty great, I just love watching them, which TV shows are your favourite?
Right now I just finished watching all 5 seasons of Dexter in just a few weeks! Very good series. Overal my favourite shows are Gossip Girl, The Big Bang Theory and the Vampire Diaries
Nice, high five for Gossip Girl, I have heard that Pretty Little Liars is pretty good, should perhaps watch that someday, hehe
And have you also made cartoons of movies once?
I made two of the Twilight movieposters too, some Harry Potter and Disney Toons, and so far three of Johnny Depps characters: the Mad Hatter, Jack Sparrow and Sweeney Todd.
Oh yes, I just love those movie cartoons, especially the Harry Potter and Disney ones but they are all just great!
Are there any other things that you would like to do with your cartoons someday? Like make t-shirts out of them or?
I would love my cartoons to turn in their own brand. Make them on clothes/bags/shoes, basicly anything i can get my hands on! Already working on some things. And when I go to a concert I usually make my own merchandise to wear. Will be making a new shirt for the upcoming Avril Lavigne concert too.
Wow, that sounds awesome, a sort of clothingline like Avril Lavigne has? hehe.
I really do hope for you that that will be possible for you in the future, what are your big dreams and where would you like to see yourself in 5 years?
I hope they would be their own brand. I would love to be able to make these cartoons all day long, every day, and be able to make a living out of them.
That sounds like a great ambition, I really cross my fingers for you that that will happen for you because you deserve it. Your cartoons are incredible. I just love them, thank you so much for the 2 cartoons that you once made for me and I really love the Ron Weasley NickyToon that I still have on my mobile phone .
As last, tell us something about yourself, like other hobbies etc.
I love reading and music, I play a little guitar, but wasn't very good at it haha. But I love listening to music and going to concerts. Right now my main hobby is drawing. I used to also do realistic drawing. But since I work a full time job as a graphic designer and travel a lot to and from work every day I don't have a lot of free time. Lately if I have a little free time, I am behind my desk making cartoons.
Great, I love going to concerts as well, which artists have you seen live until now? And are there any artists that you will see live this year?
Oh there are too many to mention I try to go to at least one festival every year, and with that my list of bands and artists I have seen live has grown pretty long through the years. Right now the only concert I have on my list is Avril Lavigne, but I hope I can add more soon.
Haha, same here, I have been going to concerts since I was 14 or something. I will be seeing Avril Lavigne as well soon, have lots of fun when you will see her live in The Netherlands! ^_^
Thanks a lot for answering my questions and I wish you all the best with your NickyToons and good luck with everything in your life!
Thank you, it was a pleasure to do the interview :-)
My top 5 of her NickyToons :
Her DeviantArt account : http://nickytoons.deviantart.com/
Her Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/NickyToons
Her website : http://nickyrutten.com/ and soon she will have www.nickytoons.net
You can follow her on Twitter through https://twitter.com/#!/NickyToons
Did any of you know her NickyToons before? And what do you think of her NickyToons?
Xoxo
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8 reacties:
Wauw, ik kende haar niet! Ik heb wel al eens zo'n figuurtjes gezien, denk ik ^^. Ik vind ze eigenlijk echt erg grappig. Ik vind die van Taylor Momsen erg leuk en al die van Avril Lavigne zijn ook super leuk ^^.
x
Wat super gaaf! Ik wist helemaal niet dat zij dit maakte ze heeft zeker talent. Ik vind haar werk erg mooi!
wow, wat leuk dat ze dat kan! had er nog nooit van gehoord, maar ziet er super uit! dat parfum van Rihanna ruikt echt héérlijk, de geur blijft ook erg lang hangen (zeker een halve dag). ik ga er waarschijnlijk nog wel een review over schrijven, maar dit kan nog wel eventjes duren ;) ♥
Oh i love her Nicky Toons! Nicky totally rocks!
It was nice to know more about her. Thanks both for the interview girls ^^
Ohhhh so cutie beautie!!!! I adore her Nikietoons!! Actually I am in love with all of them. She has so much talent and does a real hard job for getting those great results... Congrats Nikki, you re amazing, and congrats Lisa for the nice interview :D
Kisses!!!
Wauw ziet er goed uit zeg!
Never heard of her, but she seems very talented!
Love her cartoons!
x Krizia
Shark Attack - Fashion Blog
Dankje nogmaals om dit te doen! Vond t erg leuk :) mn eerste interview! haha
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