Do you have an artist or creator that you consider your, like, secret rival?

[OttoGruenwald]

I've had secret Santas but not any secret rivals.

[AbelDraws]

This is such a nice concept <3 fun rivalry is always good. I guess the only person in that category for me would be my big sis? She's the one I'm the most competitive with for sure x'D

I just wish she drew more often, she's super talented but... She's lazy lmao. That's why I get so competitive, my dad always says she draws better than me and I'm like *looks at her (my) mountains of drawings * >:c. Gotta practice even more I guess x'D

Competitiveness aside, I love her and she's amazing. She has a tumblr but she almost never post art there. Here's the link with a drawing from this last inktober tho <3

minane's blog

[vothnthorvaldson]

I don't. I'm incredibly non-competitive, even for fun, I can try but it would not last.
If I come across someone similar in skills and style, I'd be more likely to want to do some kind of collaborative work.

[spadedigsbutts]

I will fight all of my close art friends in open art combat and slaughter them (lovingly).

[irene_addler]

AHEM. Yes. Yes absolutely.

[Hexigate]

It'd be pretty cool to have a friendly rivalry, but that'd require being known lol
And I'm not the kind of person to start something; someone else gotta say hello first for me to reciprocate, if you get what I mean.

[GamerPrincessXI]

I don't have a rival. Kinda wish I did. XD

[Cavechan]

When I was in high school, many moons ago, my best friend I guess would have been a rival for me. She was very innately talented at drawing and was drawing literally 24/7. I definitely admired her skills and was sort of a secret rival, though I figure she likely knew.

Whenever I showed her my drawing though, she would only ever say "Cute." And that was it. Never anything else. I think it's one of the reasons why our friendship became rocky and didn't last past graduation.

I don't think I have any currently though.

[GesuGesu]

Not particularly? I would guess my friends are the closest thing, but we're supportive of each other and I don't really feel it's a rivalry.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Quite a few. I don't want to name names, and honestly I try not to think about these artists as individuals while I'm in the 'rivalry' mindset, because that inevitably comes with feelings of hostility and animosity. I'd rather sic the green-eyed monster on a concept than a person...

...I really envy those of you who can have healthy rivalries that inspire you to work harder and become better artists, rather than making you despondent, paranoid, and pessimistic. ^^;

[Kann]

I'm totally non-competitive so I don't consider anyone my art rival. I used to be competitive as a kid though. That was probably not a fun rivalry, but I have some memories of a girl around my age claiming she draws better than me and I was so pissed about that. xD

[Jenny-Toons]

Same. I really like going for that "Art Senpai" vibe than "my anime rival".

I dunno -- an Art Senpai just feels...right? Like, "holy snap, this person has amazing work, how can I also improve my work to get up there?"

[yansusu]

I sometimes have that when I see somebody's work very often in a certain timeframe. Mostly on other pages than Tapas though since I have a really hard time finding anything on here. Somehow, that feeling gets old fast though. Like, I'd compare a few days, maybe a week at most and then just go back to work like normal and forget about them

[Luminosophy]

Yes and no. I consider them a 'rival' in so far as they're the new bar I want to set myself to. But there's no actual feelings of animosity. Mostly studying their works and trying to back engineer how they did certain things to see if I want to incorporate those techniques myself. I'll usually flip flop a lot too because my interests keep changing as I find new styles and artists I like. I'll more likely have 5 artists I'm trying to compare myself to but for their different strengths/ niches.

[Swamp]

My Secret rival is BlackDog who gets consistently higher scores than me on Jigsaw Planet by mere seconds.

My secret grudge is in the open now.

[Hodge]

For art in general, i just look at way too many artists and often things are a matter of a taste. I have an irl art buddy, but we're pretty different. Its cool to see how we've influenced each other over time though.

For comics, back when I used to post on webtoons/tapas I'd definitely compare myself to others and make secret rivals lol. Now, it sometimes feels like I'm climbing this insurmountable mountain and i just want to know I'm not climbing it alone. So its less like "grr you're my rival" and more like " . . . hey, how you holding up?" if that makes any sense.

[Slummypond]

I vibe with this.

I’ve definitely got art senpais, but I also feel really lucky that I’ve found someone who’s in the same boat as me that I can compete against.

Although, when I say compete I guess that implies a competition with a winner and a loser, but that couldn’t be farther from what ‘I believe. As long as Jay3spin and I, and all of us reading this, do what we’re passionate about - we’re all winners.

[AVXP]

Yes, the guy who did my previous issue.

[LCT_m_a_d]

I don't think of rivals as someone who's my enemy. I think of a rival as somone who performs in my same discipline with similar work ethics/goals. Someone who I respect and learn from seeing excel at a high (if not higher) level.

I have a sports background so my rivals tend to be more healthy and respectful (like henry matisse had). Unfortunately I haven't reached a skill level yet that warrant that in art. Maybe by next year with a lot more practice and experience.

[AirisKiahin]

In general I enjoy reading comics similar to mine in any way. And I feel about the authors as if we are colleagues. I follow them and enjoy their works. I do compare our subscribers number and activity, but I don't actually feel any passion to compete with them

However, there is (or was) one exception.
I used to like one furry comics. It's author was like a God for me and I dreamed one day I would be like her.
And then one day I saw how she treated another comics artist. She criticized her in a very rude way. The story was a cute gay romance. Pretty naive, sweet and tale like. Nothing explicit, even the kisses were very rare. However the author I used to like said something like "I hope next time you won't waste your time on gay shit".
I know not everyone likes gay stuff but such behavior towards another author on her territory was very offensive.
That broken my heart and I saw the author's different side. I don't like her any more, neither I like her comics.
Right at that time my own comics was very weak and has just started. But I took that author as my rival. I never did anything bad to her, just compared our results and felt bad about how low she has fallen in my eyes. Imagine my evil laugh when half a year later my comics hit the same number of subscribers she hit in years.

After that I felt victorious and actually forgot about her and never cared until today. It seems I tripled the result while she didn't
Such a tiny guilty pleasure XD