Welcome to Glitch Asks, a new series where I hand-pick interesting Newgrounds creators to interview. For the debut episode, our subject will be @clqud, a small pixel artist who mainly draws their OCs in their unique, soft-shaded style. Take it away!

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Q: Explain the origin of your username.

A: In the past I liked so much Undertale, Napstablook is my favourite ghost and game character! So i take his name as my first nickname. After that I played Hyper Light Drifter, the main character of this game feels like very lonely, as I imagined myself, so i changed nickname on "Just a Drifter". But some time passed and I thought - "Hmmm... My nickname is very long and very hard for pronouncing" I tried to figure out what else can be lonely and drifting. And decision is... Yep, Cloud. I insert the letter "q" in nickname because of another game which I liked - Caves of Qud

I wondering about nicknaming myself like: Laffy, but I rejected that idea, sounds too embarrasing, and name is just does not suit for my conditions, so there it is - clqud, simple and sacral for me.

Q: How did you originally become interested in making pixel art?

A: To be honest, In one moment I really wanted to made my own original character, but i have no skill in digital art, I tried drawing in MS Paint, but soonly I realized - It`s just not for me, so I decided try pixel art, because I thought it would be very simple to realize own ideas on canvas in this way, I bought Aseprite on October 31 (Ironically) drawed my first art: is just little cloud in witch hat. But with time, I started become too envy on other pixel-artist, just because I thought they did very perfect arts than me, that fact put me into depression, I really worried that I`m just not good at pixel-art at all and sometimes I wanted drop this hobby, but now, this feeling is flew away, I`m glad that there is no envious thoughts on my mind.

Q: How long have you had your characters for?

A: My first and main OC - Cloud, "the cloud-headed creature", it was about three years i had this character. But I understand that fact: If I continue drawing only my main character, it would be a stagnation in my progress, so I decided draw my first haired character - Klyde (Yep, i know that i`m not good in giving names for own OC). And from that point, I started making other characters like BN-4Y, a tv-headed bunny robot; Kustiki - humanoid, which hair is literally is a bush, and etc. Sometimes I just draw characters, which holds on my mind and I never give them names, for example: a humanization of .txt file, that idea just comes from nowhere, but I drawed it. I wondered about making adult content with them, but it sounds too hard and wrong for me, and I just can`t imagine drawing something like this with my own OCs.

Q: How did you develop your art style?

A: That question is kinda complicated for me, because i can`t remember how i developed my skills. Only what i remember that my first works lacking of normal palette colors, i just used my own colors, and it looked very, very raw, and shading are poorly maded. 

But i realized: I only started making pixel art, so there is nothing bad to make a mistakes on first steps.

For now, I use palette presets from Aseprite for my arts, from Lospec site too.

Q: Explain the meaning of your banner. What is "Void Stranger Cloud"?

A: Oooh! That`s a good one!! You see... I searched indie games on steam and I found not very popular game "Void Stranger", it`s sokoban puzzle. To be honest, i don`t like puzzle-games, but after Void Stranger a started to appreciate them. It has a good lore and some things based on "Divine Comedy" which is also plus for me. When I started a new game I saw the ingame logo: "Void Stranger Gray" (Gray is a name of main protagonist) I really liked this logo, so i adapted it for myself like banner.

Also i put couple of thoughts into this banner like: "I`m posting my arts into the void, with hope if anybody likes it... So i am a Void Stranger." It maybe sounds childish, but i liked it. Void Stranger is still my favourite game, i wanted to share with someone about this hidden gem, but there are not many people, which enjoys such indie-games like this. I don`t have a powerful PC, so there is no other choice, but enjoy indie games, like Void Stranger. (And draw pixel-arts)

Q: Why do you draw?

A: Hmm... I never asked myself "Why I`m drawing these arts?". I can`t monetize my arts and can`t buy comms from foreign creators. If i had an ideal answer, then it gonna be: For myself, and my friends on discord server. But originally i had only one naive idea: "I want to be popular tweeter artist, get very big numbers of likes and retweets and etc." I don`t cared about one issue "It`s just not possible to get all attention in one time, there and now". For now i understand - i must make many attempts, many ups and downs in my attempts. So i decided to post my arts somwhere else, and there we are - Newgrounds, from that point, my previous idea faded into the background, and now Newgrouds very important for me, because there are much talented people - artists, musicians, game developers, animators and other creative users, I want to become one of them, maybe not popular, but well known in local circles!

Q: Is there any advice you would like to give to aspiring pixel artists?

A: Hard to say, but as I said earlier: "I only started making pixel art, so there is nothing bad to make a mistakes on first steps.", just give a try for some ideas, and never fall into despair from mistakes. Also i remembered: I have "sinned" - I drawed my first arts in mixels, and I just wanted to say for everyone: Don't blame aspiring pixel artist for that, just give them a explanation: why mixels are not preferable for first artworks.

Q: What is your favourite food?

A: My favourite food is food that i make for myself. I`m not good in cook, but it has to be learned from independent life experience. I like make salads, soups, pasta (with cheese) and rice (fried, with stake, or another meat). If i get lazy - I buy some sandwiches and rarely - pizza. Also i like choosing sauces for food.

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Thank you to @clqud for participating in the first ever episode of Glitch Asks; their answers were absolutely incredible!

Who will I interview next? Nobody knows but me! If you've made it this far down, thank you very much for reading, and I'll be seeing you in the next episode of Glitch Asks!

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Disclaimer: All answers are copied and pasted directly from the creator's response, without any adjustments. The views expressed in this interview are purely those of the creator and do not reflect those of GlitchBuddy.