Tickling Artists #43: Interview with Stevie Galaxy

1) Do you want to tell us something about yourself and your art?

Of course! I’m a French-speaking woman, known as Stevie Galaxy, from the beautiful province of Québec and I’m a traditional animator by day and fetish (foot and tickling) illustrator by night…and weekends.

I also do foot photography content as well as tickling videos with my better half, Dr.Random. I’ve been in the tickling community for about 6 years now. I first dipped my toe into it by coloring line arts from Dr.Random and soon felt the need to do my own artworks. Therefore was created my page formerly known as CaptGalaxy (now StevieGalaxy). It’s only after a year or so that I began to also do foot modeling. I’ve been doing commissions on the side and recently made it a full-time job since there is a down here in the animation industry. What actually really helped financially was to open our Patreon, Dr.Random and I, Randomgalaxy. There, we can focus more on illustrations, discuss with our little community, get to know them and what they enjoy. I really do love it.

2) What techniques do you use to draw? Do you have a favorite artist that inspires you?

Even though I’m traditionally trained (animation on paper…a painstaking task!), today I mostly work digitally. I work my sketches on Clip Studio Paint so I get more movement with my arm on the Cintiq. It’s also easier for displaying all my references on my other monitors. Once my sketches done, I work the line art and coloring on my iPad with Procreate (no surprise there!) since I prefer by far the sensitivity of the pen, the brushes and the fact that I can be anywhere with it… (well, almost anywhere, I won’t draw lewds in a café!). I still do paintings on canvas and when I’m blessed with free time, gesture drawing with chalks on big paper pads. 

Favorite Artists? Hell yeah. I’m a big fangirl of Bill Vicious from whom I learnt a lot by looking at his artworks. I absolutely love his dynamic style and coloring. I also really like the incomparable style of this new artist on Deviant Art, artofPDD (go check it out!). I love discovering artists…there are so many talented ones in our community! I also really enjoy to, when asked, help others with tips and ways to improve. I still have many things to improve myself, especially general anatomy, but I share my knowledge whenever I can. I could go on for a while!

3) How much was the passion for drawing born in you? And the one for the tickle?

My family says I was born with a pencil. I was always drawing. I also loved (and still love) video games and I remember copying on a sheet aside any characters in the little Nintendo booklets I had. I was writing stories and drawing the characters I imagined. I would always doodle in my notebooks in school. The teachers letting me, since I had good grades (props to them!). When time came to go to CEGEP (college in Québec, kind of), both my parents pushed me to go in Fine Arts. They were both amazing artists in their spare time (mom would paint and dad would play drums) but hated their job – they didn’t want me to feel trapped in a job as they did. After Fine Arts I did the 2D animation program at the same institution in Montreal and in 2016 I was working full time as an animator, in the same studio as Dr.Random. We started dating a couple years later and he introduced me to his thing: tickling. I remember finding this a little bit odd at first but this feeling was very quickly replaced by excitement…at last, some spice! Unlike drawing, I wouldn’t qualify tickling as a passion but more as a thing I enjoy. I enjoy to tickle for play, but as an arousal thing I prefer to be tickled for sure. I’m just a humble lee!

4) What are the tickling scenarios that you prefer to draw?

The scenarios I prefer are when there are surreal elements and a lot of things going on. Like tentacles/vines and other bounding entities getting the character under control while also tickling them. I also prefer when there are more than one character so there is interaction between them, especially tickle fights. I like when both of them enjoy it, but also when there is one of them being more ‘’at the end of their rope’’. Even when they’re driven to tears, I try to make them look aroused, enjoying the moment.

5) What are the aspects of tickling that you intend to represent with your art? Example: the laughing, the wriggling, the relationship between tickler and ticklee?

I love to exaggerate some aspects and elements, which real life can’t achieve (or almost). I like to exaggerate breast, amount of bodily liquids, expressions or the mass of skin over something bounding it, for instance. I like to add a lot of movement lines around the bodies to create some illusion of struggles or movement. When time permits it, I always draw additional panels of actions, close ups and/or expressions.

6) Online there are countless photos and videos of tickling sessions. In your opinion, what do illustrations offer more than images of real scenes?

As I wrote above, illustrations can show and exaggerate anything. I often get more aroused by an illustration than a photo since the ideas are more amplified. Bigger boobs! More fluids! Brighter blushes! Extreme Expressions! Delicious feet! We can play with the palette to evoke specific feelings (Reds for passion/erotism, Blue-Green for anguish, Pinks for lightness and playfulness…), arrange composition in order to tell a story in a single image…possibilities are incalculable, and all of that at the end of our pen. Powerful stuff!

7) In your opinion, what makes tickling so interesting for fans of this phenomenon?

There is a lot of similarity with BDSM but more kind. Bondages, a dominant one, a submissive one… in tickling, you can have two switches fighting over control and no one’s bleeding, only tears of laughter!

8) What are your works of which you are most proud?

Oh that’s a hard one…honestly I tend to dislike, and even cringe, at my old work. By old, I mean artworks from last month hahaha. However, I generally am way prouder of the artwork I do for my Patreon since, apart from the characters, I depict anything I want. I also have more time to do those, I can take my time as long as it’s ready for the next month. It gives me more pleasure drawing, I put so much more care into it, naturally. I feel relaxed while doing it, which is pretty rare for someone whose job is to draw/animate.

9) Do you have any particular artistic goals for the future?

Oh yeah! I dream of reaching a point where I can just, or almost, live with my Patreon. I am developing a tickling comic I would really want to spend more time on. I have shared a little bit of sketches with my supporters and one of them really helped me to get me started on expanding my main characters. I’d also love to be able to find time to do tickling animations since this is what I do! In my non-fetish career, I’d like to do many animation short films throughout my life.

10) Do you think AIs will end up enriching or impoverishing the art of tickling representations?

Oh boy…don’t get me started on this! It kind of keeps me awake sometimes at night…I’m pretty scared actually. I’m a pessimist by nature. In fact, to tell you the truth, I’m planning on going back to school in a year or two to become an electrician, doing art and the Patreon on the side. I’m scared for my family, we’re both in animation. I think within 5 to 15 we’ll be replaced. Darn, we’re in the infancy of AI and I see fetish artists who turned to it and are now pushing generated stuff only. And that stuff looks good, no twelfth toe! Yes, it can be a tool for us to go faster, but I tend to believe that most people will just do the entire work with it and call it a day. Gloomy, eh? 

Artists are really split on this topic. I also hear others who think we should just dive into it and use it to our advantage, to go faster, which is fantastic. I always try to hear both sides but as I said, I’m pessimistic by nature hahaha. So yeah…I just don’t want to wake up at 50 or 60 and have to find another field of career at this age. I prefer to play it safe for my family and get out. I plan on having a simple life, taking months or years off from time to time to work on bigger art project for myself.  Am I finishing this thing on that note? Uh…never give up!

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