Introduction
Marcus "kshArtist" (pronounced: kash artist) Shartist is a complete steakhead from Northwest Washington, USA. He identifies as a "Shartist" with interests in art, fighting games, nostalgia about the "good old days" of the internet despite being the age of 4-9 at the time, Beyblades, and the humorous conspiracy that girls are real. He is happily married to his wife, Nile, and has several other "babes from a different dimension."
Oh yeah, and he created this website. All of it. Even this text you are currently reading. Hi.
Name History
The earliest iteration of Marcus's online name "Kingish" was first used in 2011 while making a new Minecraft username, having decided to combine "Foolish King" into a portmanteau. It was later shortened to "KSH" as an homage to his time playing arcade games prior to playing PC games. The name "KSH" is pronounced as "kash", but others have made colorful interpretation to the name by pronouncing it as "kish" or "keesh" (quiche) and even as far as pronouncing it as "kwash." These people may need to apply for their human rights visa in the near future.
Previously known as "kshdoodle" on Twitter and Tumblr, he would later change to "kshArtist" sometime in 2024 after unintentionally picking up the nickname "doodle," a username that is somewhat common found all over the internet. The "Shartist" aspect of the name was unintended, but kept anyways since it reminded him of funny buzzwords thrown around during middle school.
Shartistocracy
Marcus's fascination with digital art began in 2015, inspired by artists from abroad like Panapana and Gashi-Gashi as well as the release of the first Splatoon game alongside with Miiverse's exploding popularity at the time. Although he was not one to post on Miiverse himself, this would mark the beginning to a great fascination in the art-making process.
Accounts of his journey into art vary, but a consistent starting point is November 2016, when a month-long wait for a used Wacom Intuos drawing tablet finally ended. This was followed by challenges in installing the appropriate USB drivers on his unreliable laptop. Initially, the tablet was used to create various shitposts, cringeworthy self-portraits, and early concepts for original characters that now reside in the depths of his hard drive.
In 2018, after years of admiring works by other artists from many other places around the world, Marcus felt a "calling" to art and began drawing regularly. In November 2018, he transformed a secondary Twitter account into an art-focused page, marking a formal start as an artist. Since then, he has been dedicated to art, creating fan art for video games, Evil Girls, and his OCs, particularly Ingrid because she's just so damn fun to draw idk how to explain it tbh.
Life has thrown shit at Marcus in many ways, leading to periods of inconsistency with his art. Despite this, he has always found ways to bounce back, though he occasionally loses the drive to create due to factors like new game releases or burnout from intense creative periods. Take breaks from making art, kids.
Commissions
As of August 2024, Marcus has reopened commissions to the public after finally graduating from college. He occasionally does art streams on Twitch as a means of connecting with more people in the world of digital-art making (and just to make more new friends c:).
Trivia
- Marcus is a rat.
- Being a victim of glomping, Marcus now hates anime fans of all ages.
- Marcus's has a knack for playing fighting game characters that are old/bald/balding guys.
- Be sure to ask Marcus for the story about how he saw his life flash before his eyes, it's a goodie.
- There will be a time at least once every year where Marcus reads about Jeffrey Dahmer and various other American Serial Killers, denying all attempts to sidetrack the subject in every day conversation.