Artist Interview - ORO
We interview ORO, a pin-up lewd artist working with both monochrome and color anime style!
Welcome back to the Sheepish Dreams interview series, where we talk with an incredible NSFW artist who inspires us with their art.
Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing the fantastic ORO (go follow them on BlueSky)!
Q. Firstly, thank you so much for agreeing to speak with us here on Sheepish Dreams! Tell our readers a little about yourself and what programs you use for illustration.
A: Heya, I'm Oro, and I'm a pin-up lewd style artist. I focus mainly on anime-style illustrations and draw exclusively in digital. I work in Clip Studio Paint and have been using it for the past 5 years.
Q. When did you first start drawing, and what inspired you to take it up?
A: Like a lot of people, watching anime as a child made me pick up the pencil. I was probably around ten or so when I got into Dragon Ball Z, and I had to draw my favorite heroes. It's funny that I started drawing exclusively buff men, and eventually, as puberty hit, I transitioned to drawing only women.
I drew for most of my teen years, then I took a huge break for several years. Truth be told, I can't remember the exact reason why I dropped drawing. However, in 2020, with the whole [COVID-19] issue, I had the opportunity to pick it up again. I purchased Clip Studio, bought myself a Huion Kamvas 13, and the rest is history.
It's the age of social media and seeing so much artwork for sure made me want to pick it up again as well.
Q. It goes without saying we’re huge fans of your artwork, both your SFW and NSFW content. Do you have a preference for drawing fully lewd art versus ecchi/suggestive art?
A: To be honest, I only ventured into NSFW just to try it out. I was feeling a little bit of burnout at the time, so I wanted to try something new. Preference-wise, I like working on suggestive artwork the most. NSFW felt the least energy/time consuming, I only had to draw the naked form afterall. Personally, I feel like I have to improve much more in my anatomy skills before I continue working on NSFW. There might be the odd NSFW work here and there though.
Q. Let's talk about what inspires your creative process! You have a wonderfully unique art style that really brings people's OCs to life, with a focus on tall women, with an uncommon aspect-ratio. Was all this a deliberate choice, or did it evolve naturally over time?
A: I guess it's a bit of both. I've incorporated pieces of what my favorite artists do, threw it all together and it naturally arrived [at] what it currently looks like. IRL, I like taller women so I guess that translated to my art. In general, a lot of the things I do [are] because I think it looks nice and never really thought about it.
Q. You also do incredible work with monochrome, either with hatching & screentone or solid grayscale. What do you find are the unique challenges and joys of each coloring style (full-color and grayscale)?
A: To be honest, the most challenging thing is choosing a color scheme, I guess. With the current way I color things, it's just become a habit, you know. I choose a color, I turn the color wheel to the left and choose a more dark saturated color rinse and repeat.
Coloring in grayscale is so much simpler, literally just moving the value slider down. What's challenging in general is describing form. Whether using colored shadow, grays or lines describing form is difficult. It kinda just depends on your knowledge of shapes and lighting.
I do like colored drawings more but doing hatching and grayscale is a bit faster. So if I feel like doing something quickly, I'll choose those instead.
I'm self-taught and learned through YouTube tutorials. I watched channels like Marc Brunet, oridays, and linesSensei. They could offer much better insight than I could.
Q. We’d love to know which artists (either online or IRL) inspire your work. Shout out some of your faves for our followers to discover, especially if they like your style!
A: I'm a fan of countless artists, but I'll link the ones that inspired me/I like the most. My style is just a Frankenstein of how they draw and color.
@pi_man_nikuzume • @MikaPikaZo • @imlllsn
@matata1203 • @AGOTO • @tofuubear
@askziye • @Dishwasher1910 • @Fring853
Q. Your upload consistency is truly admirable—averaging a new drawing every two days, or thereabouts. How do you keep yourself motivated and avoid burnout? What’s your artistic routine (and recovery) look like?
A: My output is decided by how simple my current coloring method is. When I used to do more complex rendering, I posted like once a week. Since I'm currently doing more simple coloring I can post more often. On average, a colored drawing takes me about 4 to 5 hours to complete.
To be honest, I don't feel like my output is too crazy. I see others post colored drawings once a day.
First I do the sketch, then the next day I do the clean line art and flat color, then finally I complete the drawing and post.
When I'm feeling burnout I stop drawing, decide to take a break and fill that time with other things I enjoy doing. Right now that is going through my gaming backlog.
Q. Every artist has a different "goal" in mind for their artwork—whether that's stable income, popularity, or community. What pushes you forward, and what are your own long-term goals for your art?
A: If I'm able to live off art that would be the dream right? But as for right now, I'm focusing on drawing what I like. If I naturally improve along the way, that would be nice too.
Community-wise, I'm shocked so many people have decided to follow me. It does feel nice that so many people like what I make and hope they'll continue to do so.
Q. It’s pretty obvious that—just like us—anime and manga are a huge part of your creativity. As Fate fans, we love your Nero Claudius and Dangerous Beast. What are your fave series and some recommendations?
A: You can't go wrong with starting on Fate/Zero, and if you like that, you can continue on with Unlimited Blade Works. Aside from Fate, my other favorite franchise is the Monogatari series. If you want to check out some pseudo-artsy movies, with a great soundtrack, whilst sorta being self-contained, check out the Kizumonogatari film trilogy.
Q. Finally, as an NSFW artist blog, we have to ask: What's been your biggest learning about the world of ecchi/suggestive and NSFW in the last few years?
A: Since my teenage years, I've been into the ecchi/NSFW scene. I've been following and consuming that type of media for years, so it always felt natural to explore and partake in that type of thing. I also just love human-made art, so I'm going to keep on looking at art regardless of [whether] it's NSFW or not. Doujins are nice too lol. My all-time favorite is probably “Sex With Your Otaku Friend Is Mindblowing” by the goat Alp (Editors note: featured below is the official English version available via Irodori publishing and FAKKU!)
We'd like to thank ORO for taking the time to chat with us for this interview! You can find and follow ORO on BlueSky.
