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Guest book

Can I use your art on my website?

You may use my art on your website under these conditions:

1. Your website is non-profit (non-commercial).
2. The images you would like to use are not copyrighted by a third party, meaning, someone else (not me) owns the copyright. You will have to ask that copyright-holder for permission. You can look them up on the internet for yourself.
3. No modifications nor cropping is allowed. You may resize the images proportionally though.
4. All my images have a copyright statement on them (© William Li). If this copyright statement is not visible, you must add this statement "© William Li" yourself on any page that displays my work. If the copyright belongs to a third party, please state their copyright. (Read more about copyrights )
5. The images may not be associated with political or religious views.
6. The images may not be associated with any single story, concept or person either fictional or non-fictional. So if your website deals with 2 stories or games, then you can display my work (with the above restrictions in mind). If your website focuses on just 1 game or story, then it is not allowed. The reason behind this is, that my work may not be seen as part of a particular game or story (unless they are actually the copyright-owners).

You may provide a link to http://www.fenyx.com if you like. I would highly appreciate it, but this is not a requirement.

Can I use your pictures for my RPG / Avatar portrait?

No, this would usually mean cutting up or altering the picture. And more importantly, the pictures weren't made for that character or game either. Sorry about this.

Can I use your art for stationary / signatures / banners?

No, since this means modification to the artwork.

Can I use your art for a tattoo on myself?

Yes, since this is personal non-distributive use, you're welcome to have my art tattooed on yourself.

Can I have a higher resolution version of a particular painting?

In general, the answer to this is no. Unless you commissioned it, or want to license it for a fee.

Can I put a link on my site to Fenyx?

Yes, of course. You're quite welcome to do so. For your convenience I have a couple of banners at your disposal. Go right ahead, there is no need to email me about this. Many thanks in advance! :)

Do you take commissions?

Yes, I do take paid commissions. Please have a look at the Commissions page.
I do not take commissions for copyrighted characters (such as hobbits, Harry Potter, Darth Vader, etc.), unless you are the copyright-owner.

What do you use to create your artwork?

I mostly paint on the computer nowadays. Like many other people, I started out with traditional media that include pencil (of course), watercolour, gouache, acrylics and airbrush. However, now I paint exclusively on the computer, especially when it concerns a colour image. Pencil and coloured pencils I use on a rare occasion for monochrome art.

My digital paintings usually start out as a scribble on paper to form an idea. Then I make a sketch on the computer, and work it out from there. My paint program of choice is Satori. I use Photoshop at the end to make corrections for colour.

What is Satori?

Satori is a resolution independent paint program by Spaceward Graphics (website ). This means that I don't have to bother with pixels, no matter how much I zoom into the image while I am painting, so I can paint as detailed as I want. For the image to be usable on web and printing however, it is needed that the Satori image be exported to a regular bitmap image, which is bound by a pixel-size. With Satori I can output my painting to any size I need.

Also, because of its vector nature, it needs relatively lowly hardware and very little memory to run compared to other bitmap paint software, no matter how big the image (e.g. IMAX resolution is a preset), how huge the brushes, or how many layers I use. The brush engine really shines in terms of power and flexibility.

View a Satori screenshot

How long does it take you to finish a painting?

This depends on the complexity of the image. On average an image takes about 40 hours. This translates into about 1-2 months for delivery. Extremes of 80-100 hours do exist though.

Can you recommend any books that I can learn drawing from?

To draw people I learned the most by a book called "How to animate film cartoons" by Preston Blair (Amazon.com link ), from the Walter Foster art books series. This book gave me insight to the construction and dynamics of the human body or other mammals. Another book I learned from, is also from the Walter Foster series, called "How to draw the head". However, the teachings in this book are quite standard and are comparable to many other publications about drawing the human head.

Another insightful book is "Figure drawing for all its worth" by Andrew Loomis. Especially its introduction "An opening chat" is an important guide before you continue with the rest of the book.

Other than the aforementioned books, I have not found other books to be distinctively recommendable. I keep a couple of anatomy books for reference. In the end it is about what you need, and what you can learn yourself from those sources. A good book does not guarantee good learning. This means, that you don't have to buy expensive, renowned books. You can learn from cheap books as well, as long as you see what is lacking in your skill and what you need to improve on. And don't forget to learn from simply observing the world around you.

Do you have any tutorials?

I have a couple of tutorials available that deal with the concept of drawing. They don't teach you techniques, but they explain a way of drawing. Have a look at the Tutorials section.

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