Rococo Flow

Drawing Day '09

2009-06-05T09:06:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone!! June 6th is Drawing Day 2009. Held on the first week of June of each year, the purpose of Drawing Day is to remind everyone about the joy of putting pencil or pen to paper. In order to participate you need only to create a drawing, even something as simple as a stick figure and to share it online on a website such as deviantART or upload it to a host like Photobucket and share the link on a journal.

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 5

2009-04-13T22:22:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who’s sent in their recommendations for their favorite artists on Tegaki E. We just want to note, you can send us an email and link to any of your favorite artists anywhere on the web that you’d like to see featured.

That said here's another list of some awesome artists on Tegaki E:

quadratics
Walrus
Pilot Smith
skycolor
Aeds

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 1
Artists on Tegaki E pt. 2
Artists on Tegaki E pt. 3
Artists on Tegaki E pt. 4

Image © quadratics

Odopod Sketch Application

2009-04-09T21:19:00.001-04:00

The sketch application by the digital design company Odopod is a nifty little tool that allows one to create neat little drawings in flash. It's simple like Tegaki E, however, retains the look of actual sketchbook! Which makes for some interesting textured pieces.

Rivkah's Review on Brush Inks

2009-04-08T23:35:00.003-04:00

Image © Rivkah

On her journal, Rivkah takes the time to review various brands of inks out on the market. Through trial and error she's assessed and complied various criteria including price, drying time of product, along with the highlights and drawbacks found with each of the inks.

For anyone who's new to inking or even a veteran who's curious about a new product, this is certainly something to check out.

Artist Profile: Katie Shanahan

2009-03-26T19:09:00.022-04:00

Katie Shanahan is a 25 year old graduate from Sheridan College, with a diploma in Classical Animation. Hailing from Toronto she moved to Ottawa after school where she worked as an animator (both in Flash and traditionally) before moving back home to Toronto where she's been happily employed as a designer and storyboard revisionist. On the web she's known by some as Kt Shy and is best know for her work on the comic Shrub Monkeys. What’s captivating about Katie’s work is the sense of emotion she’s able to convey whether it is one of her hilarious comics or a full blown illustration.

How long have you been drawing?

Since I was really little, I used to start illustrated books that would never get finished because I’d always loose interest in one idea and move on to another. I was also planning on making an animated musical feature film about my dog when I was 9…which was long before I discovered how damn complicated the whole animation process is.

How did you get interested in art?

It probably had something to do with all the cartoons I watched as a kid, alongside my dad's influence. My parents ran a business creating mascots for sport teams so I'd watch my dad sketching concept designs at his drafting table. He also kept a huge variety of art books and comics around the house that I pored over constantly. Drawing was the only thing I never had to be coerced into doing (like piano, gymnastics, or Irish dancing) so my parents really encouraged me to keep it up, and I owe a lot of what I am to them!

Who are your influences?

Aaaugh, there are so many I can’t begin to list them all! I’m still learning, so every artist I come across -and love- ends up becoming an influence on some level (whether or not it shows in my work). I started off influenced by Disney, Archie and anime, but that exploded in so many different directions during college. At the moment my biggest sources if inspirations are Katie Rice, Kate Beaton, Emmy Cicierega, Brianne Drouhard, Kei Acedera... mostly a variety of incredibly creative women around my own age!

How would you describe your style?

Lately a few people have been commenting that I have a "John K" style which makes me incredibly nervous as John (creator of Ren and Stimpy) is a brilliant and very disciplined cartoonist and a big stickler for solid construction (which is definitely lacking in my own ‘floaty’ work). It makes me nervous in that I worry someone will show him my stuff someday and he'll tear it to pieces, haha... though actually that wouldn't be a bad thing! I'd definitely learn a lot from the critique...

My earlier drawings have been described as having a Disney-Anime hybrid style, only because anime fans called what I did “Disney like” and fans of western animation would say, “Oh, you do that anime stuff, do you?”

Personally I don't want to classify myself into a style just yet, as I think it's dangerous for a young artist to get set on "style" before fully understanding all the important drawing fundamentals, and exploring all the possible variations in design. I like to think that maybe a few years down the road my drawings will look totally different from the things I do today. In a good way though!

How do you get ideas for your drawings/paintings?

If I'm lucky images will pop into my head right away, but I find listening to music also helps me get into the flow of things, feeling out a specific pose or movement. It also helps me get into the head of whatever character I'm drawing; their moods, thoughts and feeling. Other than that I get a lot of ideas from observing people, which is why I carry a sketchbook with me everywhere I go.

Can you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

I just start doodling and see where it takes me, though sometimes I'll have a fully formed idea of what I want pop into mind, and then it’s a matter of fighting my hands to get it onto the page. I really should do more exploration when it comes to drawing, but I'm more interested in telling a story as quickly and clearly as I can than in finessing over fully rendered details. I wish I had more patience for that kind of thing, as I absolutely adore artists who put that kind of love and effort into their illustrations.

What's your work environment like?

I work for Cookie Jar Entertainment right now, and I've got a super sweet set up with a big powerful G5 computer and a Cintiq (I looove Cintiqs *drool*). I'm the youngest artist in the studio but I love it as my co-workers are super nice and funny and have so many crazy stories from working in the animation industry as long as they have. Very inspiring!

My home studio is set up in the attic. It’s pretty awesome and spacious with an animation desk (which I use for comic-ing not animating), computer, bookshelves loaded with comics and art books, and a comfy couch to lounge on when I'm out of ideas... or need a nap.

Could you tell us more about your online comic, Shrub Monkeys?

Shrub Monkeys is a comic I started just for the fun of it, capturing random moments, in-jokes and observations made by my two younger siblings and myself. Mostly as an exercise to keep my drawing hand active, with the bonus of getting a snicker or two out of said siblings. When I moved to Ottawa I missed my family terribly and worked at a job as a flash animator in which NO drawing was required, so Shrub Monkeys became my artistic outlet and life-line.

Around that time my only web-notoriety was for my Harry Potter fancomics "Simply Potterific” and when I started loosing interest in those, and had no idea what else to post online, I took a chance and started posting my small collection of Shrub Monkeys, fearing they'd be too personal for anyone to relate too. Amazingly, many people were able to identify with the comic's scenarios and viewpoints, which fascinate me to no end! Lisa Jonte, (editor at the time) of the female-friendly comic community Girlamatic.com asked if I was interested in joining their site and from there Shrub Monkeys turned into a weekly updated comic.

As simple as it is I think Shrub Monkeys is one of the most gratifying projects I've ever worked on. It's one of those things that make me appreciate how much people can have in common regardless of where we come from, and how ridiculous and random we can be.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I've been recently invited to join the lineup for the Flight anthologies for which I'm incredibly excited and terrified. I've also got a few projects of my own on the back-burner as well as a comic series I'll be ramping up on shortly but can't really talk about just yet. A VERY busy year!

What are your thoughts on the comic and animation industry?

I can’t comment on the comic industry, but the animation industry’s been pretty good to me. The job market’s a little slow these days with the way the economy is, but people love entertainment so it's an industry that'll be around for a long time, so I'm not worried. What I wish is that studios would start taking a chance on making more exciting and adventurous stories, as everywhere I look it's either sitcoms for pre-teens or educational shows for kids. I'd love to see studios open up short-film departments where they could experiment with style and storytelling, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Keep in mind I'm only speaking from a Toronto viewpoint!

What are your future aspirations?

They’re unclear at the moment. I feel like I'm torn between animation and comics and while it'd be great to do both I worry that I'll have to choose between them sooner or later. Ultimately I'd be happiest working on my own comic stories, but I'd be content to be a storyboard artist as well... on an awesome feature film or an amazing television series!

What programs do you primarily use for your artwork?

I work primarily with Photoshop, though I’d love to learn how to use Painter or Illustrator. Lately when I can't stand looking at a computer monitor any longer I crack out the old crusty watercolours and play around with those.

Anytime you feel like you're in a funk, what gets you motivated to start drawing again?

I was in a huge rut a couple years back, and was feeling pretty desperate thinking I'd never get out of it. Looking at all the amazing artists on DA and in the industry helped inspire me a little bit (when it didn't utterly depress me) but ultimately just knuckling down and drawing even though I didn't feel like it helped get me back in shape. Getting a cheap crappy sketchbook also helped make drawing a lot less intimidating. It's hard for me to just have fun and draw when I'm staring down at the blank page of a $30 moleskin.

Any advice for any other aspiring artists?

Don’t try and settle down on one style, keep learning and experimenting especially while you’re young and open to new ideas. Carry a sketchbook with you everywhere because you never know when an idea will hit or you’ll see something interesting you want to capture on paper.

What's your favorite live action movie? What's your favorite cartoon movie?

Oooh man, I have lots of favourites. If I had to draw up the short list I’d say Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the Back to the Future trilogy, just because they're fun movies I can watch again and again. My favourite animated movies would probably be Kiki's Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. No matter how many times I watch it, I start blubbering at the part where the little kodamas start falling out of the trees. That and it’s a visually gorgeous movie.

Any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Um…nothing in particular. Thanks for the interview! :)

For more of Katie’s work, you can visit the following sites:

ktshy.deviantart.com
ktshy.blogspot.com
Shrub Monkeys Webcomic

You can also contact Katie at shanahan.katie@gmail.com

Trailer: Where the Wild Things Are

2009-03-26T00:19:00.005-04:00

Trailer for the movie Where the Wild Things Are, an adaption of the classic children's book by Maurice Sendak.

Kraak & Smaak - 'Squeeze Me'

2009-03-17T11:45:00.002-04:00

For anyone who hasn't already seen this funky video. Directed by Andre Maat & Superelectric.

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 4

2009-03-14T00:59:00.007-04:00

Here’s another list of artists on TegakiE that you guys should check out:

Kippery
Mila.the.Mute
Marlow
Kundagi

Feel free to email us with any of your recommendations!

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 1
Artists on Tegaki E pt. 2
Artists on Tegaki E pt. 3

Image © Marlow

Santogold - 'Lights Out'

2009-03-11T22:59:00.006-04:00

A video filled with bold prints and patterns which are characteristic of Santogold's unique style. Directed by Kim Gehrig of Academy Films.

Justice - 'D.A.N.C.E.'

2008-08-15T02:51:00.003-04:00

Always enjoyed the visual imagery in this video. Directed by Jonas and François of 75 Music.

Also check out the unfinished version and Director's cut which feature a different and more interesting ending.

Happy ATC

2008-08-15T02:07:00.004-04:00

We recently came across a fun little community called Happy ATC on Livejournal. Its premise is to swap hand made trading cards with other artists, with a focus on hand-drawn cards done with traditional media. It’s relatively new, so for right now the number of participants is fairly small but that makes for a more intimate feel and an easier time at making some new friends.

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 3

2008-08-09T20:28:00.004-04:00

Continuing on our highlight of artists on Tegaki E here are some others who have caught our eye.

ptlau
hellebore
BB
QueenOfTheCute
JaB

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 1
Artists on Tegake E pt. 2

*Image © ptlau

Journey to the West

2008-08-07T22:00:00.002-04:00

For anyone who hasn’t already seen it:

Also check out the BBC’s site for more goodies.

On that note, the Olympic opening ceremonies begin this Friday, August 8th.

Vacation Time

2008-06-26T14:10:00.004-04:00

Rococo Flow is on vacation right now, however that being said be sure to check out the following links for art and comic related news.

http://www.comics212.net/
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/

We'll be back soon with more interviews and features. Also be sure to subscribe to Rococo Flow on your RSS reader or livejournal using one of the buttons on the left.

Heroes Con 2008

2008-06-19T15:04:00.002-04:00

The big event this weekend is Heroes Con which takes place in Charlotte, NC. Guests include Hope Larson, Matt Chapman, Jaime Hernandez, Bryan Lee O’Malley and so much more it’s impossible to list. Another big feature of the event is Indie Island which houses various publishers and creators for indie and alternative comics.

No doubt that it’ll be lots of fun for people of all ages. (Source)

Also at Heroes Con will be a table for the Mike Wieringo scholarship that was announced.

The scholarship will have a table at Heroes Con in Charlotte this weekend, where you’ll be able to buy Mike’s sketchbooks, comics, and original art, and get sketches and signatures from some of the top talents in comics. All proceeds from the booth will go to the scholarship. (Source)

Artist Profile: Risa Valdez

2008-06-17T20:46:00.009-04:00

Risa Valdez is currently a rising senior at Cal Poly Pomona and currently lives around Los Angeles, California. Born and raised there, her interests include Japanese music with her favorite singer being Hyde. Also known as kurarisa on deviantART, the highlight of Risa’s work includes her portraits which often times are surrounded by beautiful imagery and subtle themes, not to mention the realistic detail with which they are rendered. At the moment she is majoring in the Fine Arts with hopes to one maybe become a teacher and having her work published.

Rococo Flow: Why fine arts? Was there anything in particular that got you interested?

Risa: I was determined to chase art ever since I graduated from elementary school. So in high school I was already excited to take art classes, by junior year I was already in AP art (though I don’t think I did my best, unfortunately).The first year of AP art, I did traditional art and the second year (my senior year) I did digital. I love doing digital works, but there’s something about traditional. I like how old fashioned and classic it is, but then digital has its upsides (I can do stuff I can never do traditionally, and it can give more power).

Rococo Flow: How were you introduced to digital art?

Risa: I can't remember actually, obviously it had to be the internet so maybe through forums or deviantArt.

Rococo Flow: Usually I ask how long they've been drawing but it's usually since they were little like you mentioned

Risa: Yeah actually that’s a funny story, I remember when I was in 2nd grade there was an art contest for us kids to draw our house. I remember I drew the sun with squiggle rays, and I thought for sure I would win because of how cool it looked, but I didn't, haha. Then in 5th grade, in art class we had to construct a scene out of construction paper. I worked really hard to make a room scene with a vase of small detailed flowers. I got a C and I was shocked. I vowed to get better at art from then on.

Rococo Flow: Haha… so revenge or something along those lines? Either way, that's a great sort of motivation. I think many artists may not want to admit it, but with communities like deviantART, I'm sure envy is a slight driving force at times.

Risa: Definitely, I know it can get like that for me. There'll be artists out there that blow my mind and I think 'wow, I'll never get that good, I should just give up'.

Rococo Flow: Certainly, that's why I like those rare times an artist will show their improvement, it gives others hope. Who have been your influences?

Risa: I can't give names because it's impossible. There are countless artists out there that I've soaked up to try and create my own style, from classical artists to recent ones.

Rococo Flow: Would you be able to describe your style?

Risa: Let’s see, currently I'd say it's a detailed collage portrait style with hidden messages (and I try to incorporate a lot of color when I color them).

Rococo Flow: What sorts of messages do you try incorporate?

Risa: Usually it has to do with the person, the theme. So, let’s say if I put certain flowers around them, some of them have a meaning. Then, I'll put objects in there that associate with them too. So in a way it's my take on the person, sometimes.

Rococo Flow: Can you explain how you go about drawing or painting a piece?

Risa: It always starts with the face, particularly the nose, I have no idea why haha. So from there I draw the rest of the face according to the nose position (I usually always have reference, so 'eyeballing' it is key). Sometimes I already have the composition in mind, but other times not, so after drawing the portrait, I add in the other objects around them.

Rococo Flow: What programs and traditional media do you usually use for your artwork? What's your favorite?

Risa: That's such a hard question! For digital art, definitely Open Canvas. I love how basic it is so I think it's easy for anyone to use. Unfortunately though you can only use it on PCs and I have a Mac now, so I haven't been able to use it. I know a lot of people use Painter but I don't even know where to begin there are so many tools and things, haha.

For traditional media, it's been watercolor. I love oils too, but since it's messy and smelly, I don't use it often, watercolor is friendlier, especially since I can just take it out, use it, erase with water if I make a mistake, blend and dab to give a cool effect, not to mention how beautiful it is overall.

Rococo Flow: Do you have a favorite type of drawing environment?

Risa: If I’m working with traditional media, I like working in the afternoon (with natural light) by the window. Digitally, it doesn't matter.

Rococo Flow: Out of all the pictures you've done thus far, which one are you the most proud of and why?

Risa: Ah which one! Let me see. It’s a tie between "Faith Gift 2006" and "Crown of Thorns”. Faith Gift because I actually painted it for Hyde (my favorite singer) when he came to California to do some concerts and it conveyed my image of him, but then the Crown of Thorns idea was something I had wanted to paint for some time because I felt any celebrity could relate, especially since Christianity was a recent theme of his so it felt very fitting.

Rococo Flow: Which piece took you the longest? Or was there any that was rather difficult, where you felt like you really had to push yourself to completion?

Risa: Oddly enough for most difficult, probably “37” because it was something I wanted to do to celebrate Hyde's birthday last year and I hadn't done anything all day. I was suffering artist's block and was unsatisfied with things I started, so I tried my best to crank that out and surprisingly a lot of people loved it! As for the longest time, that's a funny question because when I work on an art piece, I do so in long periods of time. I'll spend a good chunk of hours working on something because I get excited about seeing it finished. Crown of Thorns took a weekend to do though, so I guess that took the longest, probably.

Rococo Flow: Ah yeah, I remember 37. It's one of my favorites by you, definitely =)

Risa: Haha now you know it's secret.

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* It's funny how that works though. What are your future aspirations?

Risa: For some reason I'd like to teach art. My art teacher in high school was really laidback and actually didn't teach me anything, haha, but she believed in me and that was important so I hope I can discover and help other young artists too. Plus despite being a fan of deep and dark things, I have a good sense of humor and can be lively so it just sounds like a lot of fun (I know I'll regret saying this now, haha). Who knows though? Oh and of course I'd want to keep painting and drawing my own things to sell on the side.

Rococo Flow: Sounds good, I admire that, anyone who wants to become teacher, because there aren't enough good and inspiring ones. After all, without the teachers how would anyone learn anything to become artists, doctors, lawyers, etc.?

Risa: I know right, and then they can come back and thank me when I'm roaming around with my walker.

Rococo Flow: Haha. Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

Risa: I'm a huge fan of Japanese music, as you can tell. I listen to all kinds and hope I can pay homage to my favorites by drawing/painting them. I sound so simple.

Rococo Flow: No you don’t. So who are your top five favorite musicians? =)

Risa: Oh Nooo!!! Hahahaha.
1) L'Arc~en~Ciel
2) Shiina Ringo
3) Salyu
4) RIP SLYME
5) the brilliant green

Rococo Flow: If you could be any character from a video game, movie, novel, etc. who would it be and why?

Risa: Maybe Lily Chou-Chou from the movie All About Lily Chou-Chou, because in the film she was an ethereal singer that provided a mysterious power to very different people. Her music was beautiful, original and other-worldly, all while being very mysterious herself. I thought she was such an amazing character.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Risa: Ah maybe, I’m kind of embarrassed that most of my work is fanart of Hyde? Haha.

Rococo Flow: Another artist I interviewed Heather or Makani, if you've heard of her said something along the lines of, ‘draw what you like to draw’, I mean after all if it makes you happy, who cares? Whatever gets your pencil moving.

Risa: Ah that’s a good quote! It's true though and I respect Hyde a lot so I really find it easy to draw him often.

Rococo Flow: I didn't ask earlier but are you working on any sort of art related projects or something of that nature?

Risa: I actually worked on a doujinshi with a few other artists a few years ago, but I'm really embarrassed with my submission so I like to forget about it (I didn't do a good job). Most recently an idea was pitched between me and a different group of artists but nothing has become of that yet. I hope maybe in the future I'll have the confidence to create an artbook with other artists, or go solo.

Rococo Flow: I would really love to see more artbooks done by some rising young artists like Le Grand Grimoire Visuel, I think such a project would be awesome and I'd totally buy it.

Risa: Yeah I think there should be more out there, even if they’re small.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any advice for other aspiring artists?

Risa: There's a lot of things even artists you admire will learn so don't give up, if you love it enough and sincerely work hard on what you do, you'll improve in no time. Your best work is only the beginning to what you’re capable of doing so Good Luck!

To see more work by Risa visit the following links:

kurarisa@dA – deviantART gallery

You can also contact her at kurarisa [at] gmail.com

Artist Profile: Kevin Dalton

2008-06-14T23:46:00.013-04:00

The work of Kevin Dalton has always been a visually stimulating delight. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Kevin comes from a big family with five brothers and one sister, where they all dabbled in the arts in some form. Though, not all of them decided to continue with it, Kevin spent about a year at The College of Creative Studies also located in his hometown. With a distinct style and a knack for great character designs, each of his illustrations carries the hint of a greater story. This perhaps reflects the fact the he has experienced life all around the United States and also has a great interest in different cultures. Now living in California, Kevin is currently working as a storyboard artist for South Park Studios and is open for freelancing upon request.

RF:: Was it the influence of your family that made you want to pursue art or did something else spark that interest?

Kevin: I had a BIG love for comics in my early years around elementary school. I used to take computer paper in secret from my teachers, since we had a pretty old computer for the majority for my life. I would draw comics usually of my own creation and sell them to kids. All of my brothers were into this though, so it was kind of a family thing. I remember I gave all the comics my brothers drew to some girl I liked. Haha, so it was definitely a family thing, plus it fueled my love for comics, but it was also due to an overactive imagination.

Looking back, I think the thing I was most interested in was storytelling. Every now and then, my elementary school and other events I went to would have those folk story tellers. I always loved watching and listening to them. I’d much rather listen to their stories of how the skunk got its whites stripes than read about the evolution of a skunk and whatnot in a book.

RF:: Haha, I like that you gave comics to the girls you liked.

Kevin: Yeah, if you’re talented at art in elementary school your like a super star.

RF:: Who have been your influences?

Kevin: Early on, it was of course cartoons, stuff from Warner Brothers, Disney, and early anime, like Akira and Dragon Ball. A lot of those have narrowed down, now that I’m older. I’m more influenced by life and musicians now than visual artists. But I love all the stuff that studio 4c does, as well as Otomo, Ghibli, and Akira Toriyama. The last two mostly because they mix a cute style and explore all emotions with their characters, plus their design sense is simple. I also love religious and Indian art. It’s very iconic and graphic.

RF: Did you ever have a mentor or someone that helped to guide you into becoming the artist you are today?

Kevin: I had one teacher when I went to school in Detroit named David Chai that got me into animation and out of comics I owe a lot to him. I probably wouldn’t be the artist I am today if he wasn’t in my life.

RF:: What were some of the things he taught you or advice he gave?

Kevin: Mostly it was to have fun with your art and rock out. He stressed getting the feeling of a pose across. To this day if a pose isn’t perfect I have to redraw it until it’s clear. But he mostly taught a lot of animation foundations and his approach focused on pushing people to be creative and independent. I’ve got a pretty independent mind, always thinking of how to do thins on my own. That’s probably what has kept me going all these years. Being or becoming talented in such a way that you can really do what you love and live off it. Haha…what we REALLy want to do is probably NOT what we think we really want to do. So I’m working towards that.

RF:: So how would you describe your own style?

Kevin: It might be better if you told me that. Hahaha, I have no idea what I’m doing. I just go with the flow and what I feel works. But if I were to look at my style from the outside in, I would say it’s an animation influenced style with influences in European and Japanese animation. I focus a lot on pose and subtle nuances in people. How people interact with other and sort of a study of the human nature. If I wasn’t an artist I’d probably be into anthropology.

RF:: Is there ever a specific message that you're trying to convey when developing characters and ideas?

Kevin: Not really. A character is just a core. I believe that the story is greater than the character. A cool looking character is just a cool looking character if the story sucks. Sadly that seems like enough nowadays. But for ideas and stories, I want to “tell a lot with a little”. That’s kind of what I’m working on now, figuring that out. Most of the stuff on my site is a world where I would be if I wanted to escape. People have said that my characters have stories in just the expressions and gestures I use. It’s crazy when people get it… I’m like Whoa!!

RF:: Yeah... I enjoy characters whose posture and faces can seem to tell their stories all on their own. Most of the time, you see simple pin-ups that really don't do much. They're nice looking, but when it comes to wanting a compelling story there definitely needs to be more.

Kevin: I agree! It’s definitely something they can’t teach you in school. It’s more so something, a person has to do on their own. Norman Rockwell was a master at that. What’s that one saying? A picture tells 1000 words?

RF:: Yep and it’s so true.

Kevin: Yeah, that’s why I’m liking photographers more and more lately.

RF:: They have to take a lot of things into account and be able to use the model and props around them to tell some sort of story. I think an artist, especially a young and untrained one, forgets to incorporate a lot of things that can give substance to their art.

Kevin: I agree. The human body alone has so many elements to it. Hand, eyes, mouth, posture…add that with other environmental elements and you’ve got a lot of story telling right there.

RF:: Well, can you describe your own approach to creating a picture?

Kevin: Since I’m into people, I don’t normally do backgrounds, because I’m trying to get the story from the waist up. But it’s kind of hard to say. I do a lot of work by feeling, a feeling I get that I want to express onto paper. I’m big on expression and pose, so once I have those at a point where I think they tell the story, colors and such is just icing on the cake. I like to get into the minds of the characters and show that they have thoughts and have life to them. It sucks because sometimes one picture is not enough and they turn into stories. Haha. Or I’ll think of how [the characters] would look as animations.

RF:: So do you find yourself making pictures that resemble detailed story boards or maybe just a series of illustrations on the same subject?

Kevin: Yeah most of the time, a lot of them start out as whole stories that I know I cant finish so I just try to condense them into a picture or series where I want to explore a couple of different takes on the same subject. The Almighty Tiger pictures on my site are an example of one of those and awhile back I had these orchid pictures that were also a series. Good ideas are pretty precious I think, so whenever I have a good one I want to give it good treatment. Lately, my sketches have been broken into panels, so I’ll be able to perhaps get one view of the whole idea and then maybe one close up for a particular part of the body.

RF:: What's the story behind The Almighty Tiger? How did that spring up?

Kevin: The pictures? Or the words?

RF: Both =)

Kevin: Haha, oh well like I said, I draw a lot places that I’d like to be…very tropical areas and how I would like to see things. So on top of that, was what I felt is the lack of people of color I see in animation. “The Almighty Tiger?” is a name my friends and I came up with to describe ourselves as a group. Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indian, and all other forms of people that you don’t often see portrayed well in entertainment. I want to do some special things with it. To give more exposure to those groups of people in their arts, because we could all use exposure :-). That’s for the future though.

RF:: Ah I see, really cool. Do you feel that race has ever had an effect on you as an artist? Maybe it's just because of what I've been exposed to but there seems to be very few Black and even Indian artists who are out there visibly and show exceptional talent.

Kevin: Well I can say from experience that there are quite a lot of talented people from all races in the world known and unknown. I just want to expose younger people to MORE types of art from different cultures. It sucks how narrow most teaching is. Especially speaking as an African American and showing younger kids just like me the opportunities out there. There are a lot of untapped stories and ideas if people look. I'd love to collaborate with people all around the world and have them bring their own culture and art together with mine. It’s about getting out of your comfort zone. I don’t necessarily like when stories about other cultures are tailored to a certain taste.

RF:: Any specific examples?

Kevin: Haha, a lot of Disney movies, but they are what they are and serve a purpose. It’s more so how I would do it. If I were to say do an animated movie about Native Americans, you better believe the score of the film would be have traditional from the culture I was trying to depict. I would go out of my way to learn as much about them, get their input, and learn from their artists and their art, because the film would be about them. It just seems like the logical thing to do, but I totally understand the business of trying to cater to as many demographics as possible for maximum sales and etc. Does that make any sense?

RF:: Yeah it definitely does. Haha, and yes, it’s definitely all about the business.

Kevin: Yeah, sadly.

RF:: When you're working, what programs do you use?

Kevin: Mainly Photoshop, sometimes Illustrator. I like vectors but man are they slower than doing work in Photoshop. It’s a different way of thinking.

RF:: How about traditional media?

Kevin: Pencils, colored pencils, markers, ink/ink washes and watercolors are usually what I dabble in.

RF:: Have worked on any big projects?

Kevin: Right now I’m on South Park, previously I’d done design work for a couple of studios. Stuff you could actually see was on the Legion of Superheroes TV show that came on. I’m not sure if it’s still on air though. I’m pretty happy with the turn out on South Park, thus far, since they create episodes so quick a lot of the stuff we do in the storyboard and production department actually goes into the show. Often times [in animation], through revisions and things just falling under, our ideas and work are never used, kind of sucks.

RF:: I can imagine. You put all that effort into your work for it to never see the light of day, but that South Park, job sounds very cool. Especially since I heard about the deal the creators just signed, so it’s a really great gig.

RF:: So you're rooming with Ed Tadem do you guys ever collaborate on any pics or have you ever had any other opportunities to work with any of your other peers?

Kevin: Since we are both busy right now we don’t get to collaborate to much. I want to collaborate with other people and make some books, but when two people are busy it’s sometimes hard.

RF:: I'd buy you guys books and some others in an instant!! *Laughs*

Kevin: Haha, that’s where the fun is I think, doing those collaborative pieces. Books and all that, it’s not as crazy as working in entertainment. You can still keep some of the creativity since they’re not a huge gamble

RF:: Yeah I see some groups who try to go the self-publishing route some of them though, I don't know if they're at the level where I'd want to invest any more than 20 dollars on their stuff, but for some other people, I'd seriously put down some money to have a hard bound book. Haha. Like the Exposé stuff by CG Society/Ballistic publishing. However, I think if it’s artists that I knew and sort of grew up watching I’d have more of a sentimental value but that’s me.

Kevin: Yeah I agree :-) It kind of goes back into The Almighty Tiger, artists working together.

RF:: So I guess I want to go ahead and throw this question in here now since you've sort of voiced some opinions, but what are you thoughts on the comic/art industry and any related fields you want to include? Where do you think it's heading towards?

Kevin: I would love to see games go in the direction for fun games over focus on graphics. The games coming out are just first person shooters, but I guess you could say that’s our type of game in America as RPGs and such come out of Japan. For comics, I think it’s open ended since you can easily put out comics on your own. There are so many creative people in it. I still love comics and hope to get back into it. It’s going wherever people take it. 

RF:: Haha, you can dedicate a comic to someone you like. =D

Kevin: Haha, totally!! Comics are awesome. Ed Tadem is the future I must say.

RF:: Oh I agree, I agree!! I bookmarked his journal so I can keep up with it, but who doesn’t do that for their favorite artists?

Kevin: Haha, I agree and I’m glad I get to see it from start to finish now. He’s so talented it’s crazzyyy.

RF:: *Laughs* Lucky. I'm sure you learn new things and vice versa

Kevin: Yeah, I’ve learned how much I suck. Haha.

RF:: *Laughs* Out of the pictures you've done, is there any that means the most for you?

Kevin: "Piano song" because its referenced off a old picture I have of my grandmother and my jazz dance picture which was for a friend of mine. Inside the picture are both him and his wife, but also because I just really like seeing people dance :-)

RF:: =) That’s sweet. What are you future goals?

Kevin: To take time to get better at art and animation, finish a comic I'm proud of and perhaps a personal art book. Then get to work on The Almighty Tiger and animation. But I definitely understand paying your dues so right now gaining work experience and connections. I hope to start my own art business perhaps later on in life after I’ve gained some experience.

RF:: So you've spoken a bit about animation, what are some of your favorite animated shows?

Kevin: :-( I have none. Some are done well though, like Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, El Tigre, and Avatar.

RF:: Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

Kevin: I love music to death, as well as traveling. Now that I’ve got a little more money I plan to travel a bit since I have friends that are artists in other countries to visit. And there’s my never ending love for food.

RF:: Who are some of your favorite music artists?

Kevin: I love blues, jazz, rap, soul, funk, I seriously like it all. If it’s good it’s good. Music should be able to transcend tastes. But I guess it takes an open mind. Most of the time my favorites range from Billie Holiday’s sultry jazz to compilations of CDs with samba and bossa nova and Japanese orchestra composers. It’s hard to remember names and I try to check out all sorts of music. I’m always open to hearing new stuff

RF:: That’s always cool in my book =) ... I try to keep that philosophy with music too. If I like it I like it. I'm willing to try and listen to anything

Kevin: Ditto. I’m the same with food and art. I want to try everything even if I won’t like it. All good stuff for the brain.

RF:: What's your biggest fear?

Kevin: Hmm… maybe dying and not doing anything of worth. But since I went through cancer I kind of got rid of that fear. In terms of horrific things, the unknown scares me. However, since I did go through cancer, that’s my biggest fear, of it coming back.

RF:: Oh, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of cancer did you have?

Kevin: Hodgkin’s lymphoma

RF:: I see, well I'm glad it's gone now. It’s something quite fearful to go through. What's the strangest comment you've ever gotten, regarding your art?

Kevin: Haha one guy said my art annoys him.

RF:: Oh wow, did he give any reason why?

Kevin: Because I had two hands that looked like they were from two different universes.

RF:: *Laughs* Oh well… you can’t please everybody.

RF:: Do you have any advice for any other aspiring artists?

Kevin: Just be yourself and do things as how you want to see them. Not how you think people want to see them. It’s you chance to voice your artistic opinion in the world so use it to the best of your ability.

RF:: Well, I believe that’s it. Thank you for the wonderful Interview.

Kevin: Aww thank you thank you it was delightful, I learned some new things about myself :-)

RF:: Glad to hear that =)

Visit the following links to see more work by Kevin:

http://www.kevindalton.com - Homepage
http://kevindalton.com/blog/ - Kevin’s Sketchblog
http://www.lulu.com/content/377400 - Kevin's sketchbook which you can purchase
http://www.myspace.com/kevin_dalton - MySpace page
kevindalton@dA – dA gallery
Checkered Penguin – Group Sketchblog with friends.

You can also contact Kevin through the email address on his homepage.

Artists on Tegaki E pt. 2

2008-06-13T12:35:00.003-04:00

Reflecting on our last post about Tegaki E, we thought why not link to a couple more of our favorites. For those of you already on Tegaki E, there’s a book marking feature which allows you to easily follow others. Handy when no one really sticks out on the front page.

Anarahk – (even has a little Tegaki E tutorial which you can find here).

bunfats

CNWOLF

alexds1 (Check out Der-shing's interview here).

boopkit

chupachup (bonus points for being named after the lollipop).

*Image © CNWOLF

Graffiti Contest: The Incredible Hulk and Jones Soda

2008-06-08T23:07:00.000-04:00

Facebook Graffiti is holding two more contests. The first is based on The Incredible Hulk in which participants are to draw the Hulk or character of their own in various categories. Contestants compete for a grand prize of $250 Fadango or Amazon gift certificates.

The second contest is sponsored by Jones Soda and contestants are to create a drawing of a common object or place and make it into something better. Grand prize winners will have their picture printed on Jones Soda bottles, receive a track jacket, and Jones Soda gift pack.

Drawing Day '08

2008-06-06T18:11:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone!! This post is to inform you about Drawing Day 2008 which beings June 7th. (Depending on where you live in the world that could mean today!) Held on the first week of June of each year, the purpose of Drawing Day is to remind everyone about the joy of putting pencil or pen to paper. In order to participate you need only to create a drawing, even something as simple as a stick figure and to share it online on a website such as deviantART or upload it to a host like Photobucket and share the link on a journal.

Solange - 'I Decided'

2008-06-05T17:12:00.003-04:00

The following is Solange's new video for her single 'I Decided'.

I must say I love the old school feel of the video and the colors.

Artist Profile: Emmy Cicierega

2008-06-05T08:53:00.012-04:00

When looking the art of Emmy Cicierega (Sis-er-ee-gah), one can never think of anything less than liveliness and joy. Also, know as b1ndi on dA, Emmy’s art can be characterized by a mixture of everything that was ever fun about being a kid. Currently 18 years old, she resides in Kingston Massachusetts where’s she lived her whole life and been home schooled since an early age. She also has three siblings: Leah (28), Neil (21), and Ben (14), and if you were ever wondering her last name is Lithuanian. (However, she does describe her family as being a family of ‘mutts’ with a passed on Lithuanian name). If anything, there’s no doubt that Emmy’s work is something to watch out for the in the future. Who knows? You may see her work on TV someday.

Rococo Flow: So how long have you been drawing? What was it that initially got you interested?

Emmy: I've been drawing since 10 and started getting really obsessed with it around 12 or 13. My Dad bought me a VHS of The Lion King and when I saw it, I flipped out. I decided that animation was the coolest idea ever and that I had to be a part of it. I would watch animated movies repeatedly and freeze the frames and go back and forth just mesmerized! Haha.

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* Who or what would you cite as influences as you've progressed over the years?

Emmy: I spend a good amount of time browsing deviantART every day, just going over all the different kinds of artists. There are hundreds of talented folks I admire there. Artists that stick out by name, though, well let’s see. Recently I got into Alphonse Mucha's stuff and Allesandro Barbucci’s work is pretty awesome. Hayao Miyazaki is always a favorite!

Rococo Flow: Of your peers, who would you single out as being one of the most innovative with their art?

Emmy: Hmm well you just gotta love Loish's stuff. She draws beautiful girls who have strong jaws and other strong features but still turn out just gorgeous. She uses colors I’d never think of using!

Rococo Flow: I have to agree, her use of colors and composition is amazing. How would you describe your own style?

Emmy: Uhh. Disney on vacation in Japan, attending a fashion show set to French jazz. I have no idea how to describe my art. Hahah, Cats. Lots of cats!

Rococo Flow: Haha. How do you get ideas for your drawings?

Emmy: Music! I love picturing what goes along to music and then drawing it. Music can really help me put a personality to a character. It's fabulous.

Rococo Flow: So is it any genre of music in particular or can it be anything?

Emmy: I love all kinds of music, mostly happy stuff. I'm big on Japanese Pop lately, but I also love sassy French stuff and some Norwegian punk, and you gotta love American geek rock! But yeah, foreign music is awesome to me because you get to apply your own meanings to the lyrics and still enjoy vocals.

Rococo Flow: What programs do you typically use for your work?

Emmy: Photoshop CS2! I practically live in Photoshop. Haha.

Rococo Flow: How about traditional media?

Emmy: I've always wanted to test the waters with that but it’s dang intimidating! No undo button! I do sketch with pencils a lot though. I plan on exploring watercolors at some point this year.

Rococo Flow: Could you go into detail about the process you have for creating a picture?

Emmy: It's pretty basic. Sketch, inks, flats, shading. Sometimes I’ll mix it up and do sketch, flats, shading (no outlines, ooh!). I'm trying to get more into digital painting lately though, which requires a higher resolution and lots of patience for fiddly details. It's slow going, Haha.

Rococo Flow: Ah I agree, I used to look for a lot of painting tutorials and watch event files and it definitely takes some patience, but the results can be quite beautiful.

Emmy: Yeah. Watching videos of people paint is the worst, because they make it look so easy! It never is! Hahaha

Rococo Flow: Not to mention it’s sped up.

Emmy: Yeah.

Rococo Flow: What's your favorite kind of work environment besides having music to listen to?

Emmy: A good chair, my tablet and a computer is all I need, really. And snacks, SO MANY SNACKS.

Rococo Flow: With the majority of your work, are you ever trying to portray any kind of message?

Emmy: I guess a reoccurring theme in my art could be "Happiness is chic" or "Adventure is just around the corner". I like my art to feel like it's playful and carefree, hopefully people pick up on that.

Rococo Flow: Looking back at your past works, what improvements and changes are you proud of?

Emmy: I think I am better at anatomy (hopefully, haha) and I'm quite pleased with how my taste for colors has developed. (I used to be the kid who would draw cats in rainbow colors with polka dots)

Rococo Flow: Haha... do you have any original stories you're working on or projects in general?

Emmy: Well I've always got stories in my head that I develop just to entertain myself, but I've been working on making them more public. It's hard, seeing as I'm a terrible writer. I've got no solidified projects planned, but there are always at least a hundred IDEAS for projects in the back of my head.

Rococo Flow: If you ever had the opportunity, are there any artists you would love to work with?

Emmy: On a large scale, I'd LOVE to work with a team of artists on some sort of amazing project like a movie or something. On a more personal scale, there are too many people to list by name! One on one collaborations are really fun, though, if you're working with someone with a similar taste in art and style as you, or even a complete opposite style!

Rococo Flow: Since you seem to have a love for animation, do you have any particular thoughts on the industry?

Emmy: The industry needs to bring 2D back with a classy comeback. Studios should focus more on a good story, and less on what would entertain an obnoxious child for an hour. Pixar is really good at making good stories, and I wish they would branch out into 2D!

Rococo Flow: Cannot agree enough!! I hate how people are sort of dismissing 2D when in reality a good story is what's necessary for a solid foundation regardless of if it's in 2D or 3D. However, I'm curious to see how the Rapuzel movie by Disney will turn out

Emmy: Exactly. Yeah, Disney is trying to get back in the game, it's been shaky, but I’m still reserving judgment.

Rococo Flow: Yeah, I'm crossing my fingers. Haha, I really do want them to succeed.

Emmy: Me too :-)

Rococo Flow: So what are your future aspirations? Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

Emmy: I see myself with a robotic left arm that can shoot lasers and brew coffee. Honestly, though, I see myself involved with a movie somehow! Storyboarding or character design sound pretty cool to me. I'd like to be involved in both animation and live action

Rococo Flow: What are some of your interests besides drawing?

Emmy: Film, comedy, traveling, writing, photography, fashion!

Rococo Flow: If you could be any character from a video game, movie, or novel, etc. who would it be?

Emmy: Tough one! Let's see, Kiki, from Kiki's Delivery Service. I identify with her a lot. I'd also like to be Hermione from Harry Potter, I suppose. I think it would be loads of fun to be any sort of Disney Princess, especially if you get to sing all the time. But mostly I want to be Voldemort. Yeah.

Rococo Flow: Give a list of your top 5 favorite movies and your top 5 favorite songs.

Emmy: Hahaha. No fair, they're always changing! Uh let’s see. Right now some favorite movies of mine are Stardust, Spirited Away, Mirror Mask, The Incredibles, and Singing in the Rain.

Favorite songs: Lets see, ‘Kimi Ga Suki’ by Ram Rider, ‘Dancing with Myself’ by Nouvelle Vague, ‘That’s How You Know’ from the Enchanted soundtrack, ‘So You Say’ by The Bird and the Bee and ‘Somewhere Beyond The Sea’ by Frank Sinatra!

Rococo Flow: Nice =). Now you have singing ‘That’s How You Know’. *Laughs*

Emmy: Haha yeah, that song is addictive!

Rococo Flow: Do you have any advice for any other aspiring artists?

Emmy: A big problem I run into regarding young artists is subject obsession. They learn how to draw like, say, wolves, and that’s ALL they draw in like one style. That’s no good! I'm not saying to stop drawing wolves, I'm saying draw wolves in more styles and draw humans and trees and all kinds of things, don't limit yourself at all when it comes to art, ever! But don't cut back on what you love to draw either!

To see more work by Emmy check out the following links:

http://www.emmyc.com
b1nd1@dA – deviantartART account

You can also contact Emmy at emmybindi[at]yahoo.com

Creep Machine

2008-06-04T13:29:00.002-04:00

The Creep Machine is a popular webzine that often features alternative and underground artists from various fields including traditional art, illustration, and photography. Run by webmaster Josh who also writes for the San Francisco weekly, the Creep Machine hopes to expose various artists to a more mainstream audience.

Artist Profile: Ed Tadem Pt. 2

2008-06-03T18:20:00.010-04:00

In our previous post we had the first part of our interview with Ed Tadem. In this second part he talks more about his current comic project '76 with B. Clay Moore as well as his other experiences with art and comics.

[Click here for Part 1]

Rococo Flow:Do you use any other programs besides Photoshop?

Ed: Not really. I used to use this Japanese program called OpenCanvas but we used Photoshop exclusively at the architecture firm and one thing about a place like that, you learn to get really fast really quick and you pick up a few tricks. I found there wasn't much you couldn't do with Photoshop.

Rococo Flow: Yeah and Phostoshop has improved so much over the years, but I like OpenCanvas a lot.

Ed: Yeah I saw some screens of OC4 and it looks kind of like it's getting into PS territory, the last one I had was 3 and the thing I liked about it was it just had the essentials.

Rococo Flow: I have both OC3 and OC4 and 4 has a lot of added tools, but I still use the default brushes so it’s like I’m using 3. I should probably play around with it more. *laughs*

Ed: I've heard good things about Painter X too but yeah, there’s a ton of things in Photoshop I never touch. But you know, just talking to friends and asking how they do things, you sort of build up your own tricks.

Rococo Flow: Do you use custom brushes?

Ed: Yes, almost nothing but at this point. I actually even made actions to select the most used ones, from F2 through F10. I try to make most of my digital paint look like natural paint. I just kept messing with things till I had brushes that didn’t look digital. It took me awhile to configure it all.

Rococo Flow: I can imagine. Speaking of programs, have you heard of ArtRage?

Ed: Ah yeah, a friend sent me the demo and it looks pretty fun. I actually did finish a painting in it. It was on my list to get a full version at some point, then I kind of forgot about it.

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* I have messed with it but it does look pretty fun.

Ed: The interface took some getting used to.

Rococo Flow: So what about traditional media? Which do you typically use, any favorites?

Ed: Well all my comic work is eventually inked with a sable brush and Sumi ink. I still love pencil and ink for all my drawing needs. As far as painting, I’ve been trying to get into acrylics. I haven't had too much time to sit down and do something decent though. I was taught to paint with oils in school, and it sort of influenced the way I painted digitally. I still love that look, but I can't deal with the mess and the fumes. One of the reasons I want to get into acrylics is if you do it right you can get it to look like oil.

Rococo Flow: I think with the influence of the internet and these readily available programs, lots of kids are learning to paint digitally before they even touch paint but, looking at your work and other artists out there, it's sort of easy to tell who's learned how to paint traditionally because you transfer it over to the digital canvas.

Ed: Yeah, I think it's too easy at this point to just learn digital techniques without an understanding of what it's founded on but at the same time, that problem exists whenever anyone gets too married to style over substance. Even with traditional media and stuff, you can tell when someone can't draw or doesn't understand storytelling, etc. and are falling back on inking with lots of detailed little lines or something. A lot of kids learn to run before they can walk, and it shows. There are so many sites I see and the painting and colors make me jealous, but then underneath it, the drawing is weak and doesn't hold up.

Rococo Flow: I like to think that some of that is ok, because I don't feel like the majority of these people are trying to have an art career and it’s just a hobby.

Ed: True but I am kind of referring to people who actually do work, as well. They get by because it's flashy work that sells. It goes back to when I met Eric and the artists I had never heard of, but these were artists that ARTISTS respected and looked at, regardless of it they were in the Wizard top 10 or whatever. I mean you can’t knock a guy for making a living, but you’ve got to choose at some point if you want to be an artist or just a commodity to be sold at face value?.

Rococo Flow: That's true, I guess there's a lot of background politics behind it too? What are your current thoughts about the comics industry and anything that ties in with that?

Ed: As far as comics. I don't know if I'm qualified. There are only a handful of comics I buy at this point. I don’t know if there are really any background politics but I think some people don't mind being Paris Hilton you know?

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* True. Some people draw just for the popularity and that's how deviantART seems to be sometimes. However, I like it because I do find people when I dig through all the other ‘crap’.

Ed: There’s also the money. I mean, people that go into interviews literally with photocopies of someone else's artwork. Obviously that's an extreme, but I guess there's just levels of integrity as far as what you want your art to say about you and if it's something you want to devote your heart and soul to, or if it's just a paycheck. Haha and I feel so old when I check out DA. I don’t go to many forums anymore these days.

Rococo Flow: I find DA really funny because a lot of people are starting to 'discover' a lot of artists I've know about and admired for years but I like seeing that they're getting a bit of the recognition they deserve. I used to link hop from site to site because one artist I loved would like all the ones they loved and I’d end up loving them too.

Ed: Haha yeah, it’s a dangerous way to lose an afternoon.

Rococo Flow: Yes!! It’s horrible.

Rococo Flow: The other part to my comics question, or art in generally if you want was what are your thoughts on it, also with the younger generation and the great surge in Eastern influences.

Ed: Well hopefully those kids will grow up? I think it's the same as back when I was growing up and it was all about guys like Jim Lee, etc. I mean there's good anime and bad anime, and eventually you just hope kids will be able to tell the difference.

Rococo Flow: I think for the ones serious about art, it happens.

Ed: It goes both ways though, there's a lot of dismissal of anime or manga, because there's so much bad stuff that gets put on TV. That also relates to what I said about being influenced by everything around you. Hopefully anime or manga will be a bridge into just loving all kinds of art. Lots of guys do that well, people like Bryan O'Malley and Becky Cloonan are their own artists

Rococo Flow: Yeah, definitely. So what are your goals for the future?

Ed: Mainly I'd love to just do comics fulltime. And sideline in illustration or cover work, just because painting is fun too. I'm just taking it one project at a time at this point and trying to improve and do better on the next one.

Rococo Flow: Out of all the work you've done, is there any that you're the most proud of or if not, was there anything that was particularly difficult to completely?

Ed: *Haha* Most sequential pages for me are difficult to complete, only because they mean so much to me. A pinup or whatever painting is usually easier, but pages that tell a story. There's so much that goes into it, I'm still trying to get a hold of it all. I like to think whatever I'm doing right now is the thing I'm most proud of. So at this point, it's '76. I also just did a short story for the Pop Gun anthology, and I like some of that pretty ok too.

Rococo Flow: Care to talk a bit more about '76? Like how'd you come to work on it and what it's about exactly?

Ed: Sure. Well, my buddy Jason Latour worked with Clay on another Image series called Expatriate. Jason was kind enough to introduce me to Clay and recommend me for '76. The book is actually split in two, with the second half being written by Seth Peck and drawn by Tigh Walker. Both are set in 1976 and our half is called Jackie Karma and takes place in New York. Theirs is called Cool and is set in Los Angeles. Basically, Jackie Karma is a white kung fu master who used to fight crime in the '60s.

He's retired now and working as a lawyer when his old arch-nemesis comes into town, and he's forced to re-don his street-fighting outfit from his hey-day. The outfit, by the way, includes among other things a leather coat with a lion-head graphic on the back and a white belt with the same lion-head buckle. In another writer's hands, it sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster, but in Clay's, it's pretty much a recipe for awesome. I'm also doing covers for the book, and it should be out from Image Comics in January. (RF: Check it out here).

Rococo Flow: Sounds great. =)

Ed: Hehe. =) I think the book will offer something for different tastes. Clay and I are a bit more grounded with the story, and Seth and Tigh are pushing the crazy factor more.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

Ed: Well I have a short story in another Image anthology called Pop Gun, nothing else fun to speak of, just things to pay the bills until '76 comes out. =)

Rococo Flow: Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

Ed: Well I still play guitar. It's a great stress reliever. I try to play tennis, but I was in a hit and run last month and my back hasn't been letting me. I love movies, concerts, typical type of stuff. My roommate is an aspiring screenwriter and he's gotten me hooked on JD Salinger, so I've been reading a bunch of that.

Rococo Flow: So ok, what's the strangest comment you've gotten regarding your art?

Ed: Uhm, you know, I've been lucky to have met a lot of really nice people in the industry who always have nice things to say. It means a lot to me whenever anyone has a kind word. I don't post much at boards and such like I mentioned so it's just nice to hear. But on that note, it's extremely gratifying when your writer gives you honest praise.

Marcus White wrote the short story I'm doing for Pop Gun, and he said he didn't think the story would have turned out as well with any other artist. Clay says a ton of nice things too. In fact, I'll paste something he just said to me tonight that just made my day. "What I always tell people when I'm talking about you guys is that it's a combination of three things: raw talent, an almost ego-less desire to improve at your craft, and genuine intelligence."

Rococo Flow: That's quite a compliment.

Ed: Us guys being me and Tigh. Yeah. just makes me want to keep trying to kick it up a notch every new issue. Clay's a guy that appreciates the underpinnings of what makes good comics and storytelling, so even though we're rough around the edges and we both know our weaknesses, we try our best to understand how to deal with problems and just constantly improve. Or in my case, get less sucky.

Rococo Flow: Any advice for aspiring artists?

Ed: I'd say to be open to everything, and be influenced by everything. That's what will make you your own artist, instead of an artist that sort of looks like so-and-so. And remember to never stop learning. Even, if you're 14 or if you're 40, there's always something new to learn and try or improve. Always. The worst thing you can do is get comfortable with yourself and think you've got it made. The reason Eric Canete still holds my respect and awe isn't because he was awesome when I was 17, it's because he's grown and evolved and is still awesome. Whenever I think I've finally caught up to him, he's already got new tricks up his sleeve.

Every artist should be like that. I mean there are artists that are awesome, but they've gotten comfortable and after a while, you realize you've seen it all from them. Yeah, this new piece is awesome, but it's the same awesome as the first thing you saw from them years ago. And at that point you wonder, what's the point? I don't need to buy this comic. It's the same as the ones I already own. I like seeing work from artists who always have something new to offer. I don't mean even drastically changing their style or anything but maybe they adapted a cool new effect for rain or maybe they've done a neat new camera move and it's easier for me to talk about comics that way, but the same holds true for painters and illustrators. Evolution and growth is essential. Uhm, The End.

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* I think you’ve answered everything. Thanks so much.

To see more work by Ed check out the following links:

http://edtadem.com - Main portfolio site
Chepeng – Group blog with friends
http://76blog.blogspot.com/ - the '76 blog
edtadem@deviantart - dA gallery

You can also contact him through his e-mail on the portfolio site.

Artist Profile: Ed Tadem Pt. 1

2008-05-31T16:59:00.010-04:00

When Ed Tadem agreed to do an interview with Rococo Flow, I was beyond delighted. For many years, he has always been one of those artists whose work brings something new and gratifying. He is someone who is always trying to push his own boundaries and never ceases to want to improve artistically. This 26 year old was born in the Philippines and at the age of 4 his family moved to Cerritos, CA where he grew up. Later, he would eventually go to California State University, Long Beach before dropping out.

During the interview he talks about his reasons for leaving school and his experiences before landing his first major comics gig. Not to mention, he also goes into great detail about his work habits and his process in creating pages for the ’76 comic. The interview has been divided into two parts and every word that Ed has to say is worth reading. He is truly a talented artist whose work I hope to see lots more of in the future.

Rococo Flow: So what were your reasons for dropping out of school?

Ed: There were a few. Walking around campus I'd always hear kids talking about just wanting to get their degree and get out of there. But I mean, aren't you supposed to be in school to learn? The degree is useless if you haven't learned anything. I was sitting in some biology class and I realized that I wasn’t learning anything. At some pointed it stopped being about learning art and just in classes I was told to take so I could get my degree.

Rococo Flow: So what did you after you left school?

Ed: I got a job at an architectural illustration firm and figured I could work on stuff at night and weekends. Also, sometimes you learn more once you're out of school, just by doing work.

Rococo Flow: How did that set up work out? Do you still work at the firm or are you just working on your own stuff?

Ed: Well, after about a year or so of that, and saving up money - I forgot about that. That was part of the plan, live cheap, save enough money to freelance. Anyway, after about a year or so, I had maybe half the amount of savings I needed and a friend at Upper Deck contacted me about doing some artwork for the Pirates of the Caribbean card game. Except, they needed a ton of art in a month's time, so I took a month off work, and decided to just give my two weeks notice when I got back.

The money from that job basically set me up to freelance. As for the working on stuff at night and weekends - I found out pretty quick that having a 9-5 desk job kind of tires you out. It was kind of the same feeling as school, I'd look around and everyone there had come out of art school or something and wanted to do other things. We all had the same idea of working after hours, but most of those people had been and probably would be stuck there for years. I kind of wish I grew up back in the day of apprenticeship.

Rococo Flow: Did you ever have a mentor?

Ed: Yeah actually, there's a whole story/entry on this in my livejournal. (RF: Which you can find here ). Back in high school I met Eric Canete at San Diego Comic Con ’98 and it turned out we lived in the same town. He kind of showed me the ropes a bit and took me under his wing.

Rococo Flow: So you just knew you were going to be an artist? Was there anything that initially sparked that interest?

Ed: Haha, actually it was those Marvel trading cards, series 1. Before I even had comics, I had Marvel trading cards. I didn't even know what comics were but I soon found out! And then I started drawing. Although, as a kid you still kind of think you'll do other things too, like being a baseball player or something and then as a teenager I thought I was going to be a rock star. At 13 I was actually pretty split between guitar and art and I decided I was better at art.

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* Who have been your strongest influences throughout the years? Obviously there's Eric Canete whom you mentioned earlier.

Ed: Yeah, Eric kind of turned me onto a whole world of art and comics I didn't know existed. At the time I was just a kid and all my exposure came from Wizard magazine so I was into Joe Mad and Jim Lee and all the typical stuff. Eric's friends Byron Penaranda and Sam Liu, both of whom are animation industry veterans were a pretty big influence at that point too and of course as I grew up and consumed more art, I have a ton of influences now. I think the worst thing an artist can do is try to be a clone of one or even two or three artists. There’s a whole world not just of artists but of nature and other media even that should inform your vision.

But to answer your question, comics-wise my main influences are guys like Tommy Lee Edwards and John Paul Leon. There’s also Jorge Zaffino, Andrew Robinson, and I discovered a guy by accident Domingo Mandrafina, I think he's Argentine, who knocks my socks off. I love stuff from all disciplines. I've always loved Rodin's figures. Egon Schiele, Klimt and that stuff and as far as illustrators, Dean Cornwell is a painter I adore. I'm doing covers for a book I'm drawing called '76, and I'm painting them digitally and looking at a lot of Robert McGinnis for that stuff. I dunno. Like most artists, I think the list could be endless. There's guys who I was friends with online who are now making names for themselves like Chris Brunner and Jason Latour, and definitely I think I've learned a few tricks from them too. Sorry, that's enough of that. =) Go on.

Rococo Flow: *Laughs* So you have all these influences, would be able to describe your own style?

Ed: Describe how?

Rococo Flow: If you could give a couple of words to describe the type of art you produce, could you pinpoint it? Is it dark, bright?

Ed: Haha well, my friends always joke about me being emo. Let’s call it retro emo? I like drawing characters who look like they came from a decade or more ago

Rococo Flow: Yeah, I love that! I wanted to ask what your favorite era to draw is?

Ed: I think anything between the ‘40s and ‘70s is pretty awesome. When I had cable, Turner Classic Movies was always my favorite channel.

Rococo Flow: How do you go about developing the ideas that you have for your stories and comics?

Ed: Well lately I've been drawing other people's stories but typically I'll have an idea and it'll just be sort of images or specific scenes without a story and I’ll scribble those down and build a story out of that. I did a short story about a boy and a girl in a tree. and I pretty much just had an image of the girl up in the tree by herself and an image of them together silhouetted against a sunset and it kind of developed into an allegory of relationships, specifically every relationship I'd ever been in.

Ed: Or were you asking more about the process from script to final art?

Rococo Flow: I was interested in both actually.

Ed: Well, I'll talk about the process for that '76 comic I mentioned earlier. My writer on that is B.Clay Moore and I couldn't have asked for a better writer for my first major comics work. I get his scripts and print them out with 1" margins and I make notes right on the prints, drawing little 2" high mini pages and try to figure out the panel flow. At that point I almost want the panels to be able to tell the story themselves with the beats that they set up, long panels, tall panels, etc.

Also, if part of the script immediately suggests a camera angle or shot, I scribble that too. I go through the whole script that way, then go back and look at any new characters or settings that I haven't drawn before and do fairly rough designs for them, just enough so Clay can get an idea of what I'm going to do. If I need to reference something, I've stocked up (thanks to eBay) on various 1976 clothing, Sears catalogues, and books with photos of New York street scenes from 1976 (our story takes place in NY of that year).

After I've designed everything, I do 1/3ish size page layouts. I have a template format that I borrowed from Andrew Robinson and Chris Brunner that fits 4 to a letter-size page. I try to do those layouts as tight as I can, and make sure most of the perspective, construction and composition issues are taken care of early at this stage. I figured out pretty quick that being lazy in the early stages just gives you more headaches later on.

Once the layouts are done, I scan them into Photoshop and blow them up onto an 11x17 template, and convert the lines to a very light blue. I then print out the whole thing onto my final board. (Another trick I learned from Chris). Then I ink all the panel borders and pencil with a blue Col-Erase pencil. I scan those in to show Clay, as I also forgot to mention I do with the layouts. And thennnn…I get to ink the pages and and scan. Clay then letters them and gets them ready for press.

Rococo Flow: So you're actually able to print out the 11 x 17 size onto your board? Do you have a special sort of printer?

Ed: Yeah, just a regular large-format printer will work, something that does 13x19. I had to do a few tests to get it to print right in the middle where I needed them and I screwed up a few boards, but it’s worth it in the end. =)

[Continued in Pt. 2]

i vote fo art

2008-05-30T14:39:00.002-04:00

I vote for art is an online gallery that launched about a week ago where users can vote for their favorite art, as well as buy and sell their work. The concept is not unlike deviantART where the more ‘popular works’ are found one the front page. However, unlike dA there is some quality control to works that can be submitted. Regardless, it provides a new venue for artists to get their work out to the masses.

Tokyopop Manga Pilot

2008-05-27T16:30:00.009-04:00

With as much progress the company Tokyopop has often taken towards pushing the envelope for aspiring comic artists, they too often take an insane amount of steps backwards as well. It’s almost impossible to ignore their latest scheme which is the Manga Pilot program, as the contempt against it has been posted onto several blogs, most prominently Lea Hernandez’s. Reading through the comments and through the contract itself, potential writers and artists should definitely proceed with caution if considering to enter any binding contract. If you can’t afford your own lawyer, it doesn’t hurt to use Google or to get advice from people who have been or are in the industry. Tokyopop is NOT the only company out there.

Graffiti Contest: Save the Bees

2008-05-24T21:47:00.006-04:00

Facebook Graffiti currently has a 'Help the Honeybee' contest going on in which initial submission and voting ends May 25th 12pm PST.

As stated on the contest page:

This contest is part of a large effort to raise awareness about the disappearing honey bee populations . From the flowers they pollinate to one-third of the delicious foods we eat, honey bees enrich all of our lives. We hope you’ll join our mission in keeping these little heroes buzzing.

There are various categories and interestingly enough the grand prize for this particular contest is a year's worth of Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

More Interviews Coming Soon

2008-05-23T15:37:00.005-04:00

In the last couple of days Rococo Flow has been updating with various links and recommendations, however we know what everyone's really been waiting for: Interviews.

We have lots more in store and are currently working on editing and getting them published. However, we'd still love to get more input on ways to improve the site as well as ANY recommendations on any people or websites to feature. As always our email is rococoflow[at]gmail.com.

Also don't forget to check out the side bar with buttons to add Rococo Flow to your livejournal or any other blog reader you're using.

Tutorial: Removing Blue Lines

2008-05-23T13:45:00.003-04:00

Have you ever found yourself in class, doodling away on your notes, only to find that you absolutely love a piece? Unfortunately lined paper doesn’t give your work the most polished look.

LMP has created a wonderful tutorial to help get rid of those lines, which you can find here.

*Tutorial was originally linked from from LMP's art jounal.
*Image © LMP

Blogs We Enjoy

2008-05-22T13:58:00.005-04:00

Besides visiting individual galleries, there are quite a number of artist blogs we enjoy visiting. Whether it’s hearing news of their upcoming endeavors or simply seeing some of the creative process, there’s always something a little more intimate about a blog.

*Image © Stephen Hetrick

Bobby Chiu’s Sketch Group Blog - Blog featuring several artists and their sketches during their time on the subway.

Chepeng - Sketch blog group that contains the work of various artists including Robin Chyo, Kevin Dalton, and Stephen Hetrick

Bugglefug - The art of Tim Mcburnie and former home of the dailyscribble blog (still has archives).

Zombie Jam - The art of Christy Lijewski, (you’ll have to friend the journal on lj to see the art).

Pyawakit@LJ - The art of Ashleigh Firth Hetrick

http://www.edtadem.com/ - The art of Ed Tadem who’s an artist on the comic ’76

Movie by Loish

2008-05-20T21:38:00.004-04:00

Love watching this showreel by Loish:

Artists on Tegaki E

2008-05-20T20:14:00.004-04:00

In an earlier entry we mentioned the website Tegaki E, which allows users to make handwritten entries. Since then it has grown tremendously just as we expected and often times it’s hard to navigate through all the ‘junk’ entries. However finding artists like bloodypepper, Beli, diana, and Pibity is worth it. Below are links to their respective dA accounts (or lj).

bloodypepper
Beli
diana
Pibity

*Image © diana

Muto by Blu

2008-05-16T01:50:00.002-04:00

Check out this amazing animated mural by Blu:

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Tegaki E

2008-02-07T01:00:00.000-05:00

Long time no post, eh? Anyway, we have a cool site to give a shout out to called Tegaki E. Based on an original concept found here. Tegaki E allows users to make handwritten blog entries and comments. That said, it's already brimming with a lot of awesome artists and for right now the community is fairly small but will probably grow within the coming weeks. One warning though: You'll probably lose a countless number of hours getting caught up in all the fun.

No Love for the Guys?

2008-01-04T14:12:00.000-05:00

So we’re sure some readers have been wondering: Does Rococo Flow have something against male artists? Remarkably all of our past interviewees have been females except one, featuring RYE-BREAD. The fact is: There are just a lot of talented female artists out there. You’ve got Makani, Joanna, Alexds1, Maidith and everyone else we’ve had the pleasure of talking to.

Also, many of these artists tend to recommend other female artists, especially when they're friends or have worked with them on a project before. It’s not an intentional thing and many people probably don’t even realize it. It’s actually funny to think of, considering that a lot of the prominent artists you often hear about are male. Especially if one were to think of the American comic industry. Either way, Rococo Flow just wants to point out, we love the guys too!! In fact we have some interviews we’ve already done with some our favorite male artists. However, always feel free to recommend any to us at rococoflow[at]gmail.com.

Artist Profile: Heather Campbell

2007-12-31T13:50:00.001-05:00

There are not enough words to describe the art of Heather Campbell. In fact, we’re sure there are many others out there who feel the same way, except they’re probably more familiar with the name Makani. With one of the most viewed pages on deviantART, Heather’s art seems to take a life of its own, whether it’s a piece of Harry Potter fanart or an original character. If there was absolutely one thing we could chose to harp about, it’d definitely be the facial expressions and body language her works possess. Originally from Houston, Texas, the 21 year-old is currently a senior at the University of Texas at Dallas majoring in Art and Performance. After graduation, we’re sure she’ll potentially go on to do some great things in the industry.

Rococo Flow: Could you give us a brief bio about yourself and anything else of interest?

Heather:: Well I grew up with my parents and little brother (age 18 now). No one else in my family ever did art for a living but they always supported me. I went to public school and nothing very extraordinary happened *laughs*. I always liked to draw but never thought about it as a career until around sophomore year of high school when I realized that you could draw for a living and be something other than a caricaturist in the mall. Hmm, I also have a doggie name Oreo at home. =)

Rococo Flow: Does he look like an Oreo? *laughs*

Heather:: She does! She's all black with a white tummy and paws.

Rococo Flow: So were you always interested in art in some form or another? Did anything in particular spark that interest?

Heather:: Horses. For whatever reason, I loved horses when I was little, so I wanted to learn how to draw them. That's really the sole reason I began drawing. I was probably about four or five.

Rococo Flow: That’s cute. Do you still enjoy drawing them now?

Heather:: Yes :-D

Rococo Flow: So who and what have been your influences as you've progressed through the years?

Heather:: Well, luckily I didn't like how horses were drawn usually when I was little, so I kind of played it by ear when I began drawing *laughs*. But for most everything else, Garfield and Disney were probably my earliest influences. Then of course, I went through an anime phase like most all preteen artists, then I went back to more Disney and European influenced work upon discovering people's art on the internet. Since then I've been getting influences from all over the place. There are so many great art sites out there. I tend to really enjoy French styles of comics, and some traditional artists I like are Norman Rockwell and Earl Oliver Hurst.

Rococo Flow: I enjoy some of the French artists out there too, I wish I could speak better French just so I could understand everything. Any in particular that comes to mind?

Heather:: Pierre Alary is the first guy I think of, his art makes me so happy. I wish I'd found him earlier! I probably first stumbled on his stuff two years ago.

Rococo Flow: I actually just came upon his stuff the other day. (Really late, huh?) Well how would you describe your own style of art?

Heather:: I don’t know...a huge influence when I first started to try and improve my art was Matt Rhodes, but yeah my style, It's basically just a melting pot of styles I like? I don't really know how else to describe it.

Rococo Flow: *laughs* That works, I'm a really big fan of Matt Rhodes and from him found other artists to enjoy so many years ago.

Heather:: Yes! I love link hopping from people's sites. I can spend an entire day doing that.

Rococo Flow: Yeah, I remember telling myself when I was younger that if I put as much time into drawing and practicing as I did looking at other people's art, I'd probably be world class or something, but seriously it's so addicting. There are way too many good an inspiring people out there.

Heather:: I know *_*

Rococo Flow: I'm sure you know though, lots of people feel the same way about your work, you have some really funny and interesting pictures. How do you get all those ideas?

Heather:: Hahaha, I don’t know. Usually I get one idea and that leads to another which leads to another…basically I’m just easily amused.

Rococo Flow: Can you describe your typical approach to creating a picture?

Heather:: It depends on what kind of picture. The silly ones usually start out as doodles which I end up deciding to expand on. Oh but I always draw with red pencil first. I got addicted to that after someone posted a tutorial on how to remove the red pencil and just ink with regular pencil in Photoshop. Anyway, I just scribble a pose thumbnail, then scribble an actual size pose, get angry because it looks nothing like that tiny thumbnail, then mess with the face and ignore the body, then add the body once and if I get the face looking like I want it too.

Rococo Flow: About how long do you think that takes you?

Heather:: It depends. Sometimes I can get a good fleshed out sketch done in about 5-20 minutes. Sometimes I can run over the same sketch for a couple hours and still be messing with it.

Rococo Flow: Is there a certain environment that you prefer drawing in?

Heather:: I think my room in my apartment at school is my favorite place to draw and I also really like to draw at my grandma's house while watching TV =). Oh, and also in class.

Rococo Flow: *laughs* Is there a reason why?

Heather:: No idea! I seem to draw better in my room at school and at Grandma’s for some inexplicable reason *haha*. My room home in Houston is kind of clutteres so it’s… annoying?

Rococo Flow: So what programs do you typically use?

Heather:: Photoshop 7 and OpenCanvas 3. I'll dabble in Flash, Illustrator, and Painter every now and then but Photoshop and OpenCanvas are my favorites.

Rococo Flow: How about traditional media?

Heather:: I don't really do traditional media…I've never even enjoyed it really. I went through a colored pencil phase in high school but other than that, no, just no. I tried to use watercolors the other day and I felt like an idiot. I had to use gouache for my 2D design class and that was even more horrible.

Rococo Flow: *Haha* Well then it seems digital tools are you niche then, nothing wrong with that. Do you find it hard to push yourself when it comes to doing art?

Heather:: You mean as far as getting myself to draw? Or getting myself to try new things? Because I hardly ever have to really push myself just to draw and I actually welcome opportunities where I get to draw something different than what I normally do, except if it strays into like abstract art or something.

Rococo Flow: I think you pretty much answered it. I meant pushing the boundaries of your art basically, like trying to do something new at times.

Heather:: Yeah, it's just the thing is, I need someone telling me to do it, because by myself I'm not… creative enough or maybe not confident enough? I like doing new things though, as long as I have someone demanding it from me. =)

Rococo Flow: You mean like commissioners?

Heather:: Well, actually no, seeing as commissioners usually request things I draw anyway. There's a lot of things at school though that usually make me stray from my usual stuff. Last year we did one of those weekend-long "create a video game" things where I had to do some prop design and costume design as opposed to character stuff, and that was awesome.

Rococo Flow: I see, that’s cool. Well is there ever a time you just can't seem to draw anything? Like An art funk/block if you will. How do you get the ball rolling again?

Heather:: I know that feeling all too well. I usually go on many an hour internet art binge to get the rhythm back. I’ll also go look at my friend’s Loomis books. =)

Rococo Flow: Out of the work you've done, is there any that means the most to you?

Heather:: Not really, actually. I always say I'm more of an illustrator, not an artist. I put feeling into my drawings but I'm not really attached to any in particular.

Rococo Flow: An illustrator? What exactly are your future aspirations?

Heather:: I'd like to go into storyboarding and/or concept art. For anything really –movies, games, cartoons, whatever comes.

Rococo Flow: Are you trying to do that right after you graduate?

Heather:: Very luckily, one of my professors is opening his own studio, and this year I'm going to be doing assistant concept art for him, and then he said I have a position waiting for me after I graduate, if I'd like.

Rococo Flow: Oh wow, that's extremely fortunate.

Heather:: Yes, I'm way excited :-D. One of the perks of not going to an art school, I suppose.

Rococo Flow: You mean less competition?

Heather:: Yes. I wasn't even in this guy's class and he contacted me because he found my deviantART *laughs*

Rococo Flow: *Haha* Either way that's awesome. So many artists seem to struggling to find great jobs.

Heather:: Definitely!! Some that I’m friends with have been having difficulty, which really sucks because they’re some of the most talented that I know.

Rococo Flow: So speaking of other artists, have you ever had the opportunity to work with others on a project?

Heather:: At school, yes. That weekend project I mentioned, and also on another project that never went anywhere, but it was still fun thinking up stuff for it.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any of your own personal projects?

Heather: The closest thing I've done to a personal project is HBP Project and Fanart100. I haven't headed up any animations or directed anything. Though I was head concept artist for both of the aforementioned projects but I still had to follow the project director’s guidelines, which is what I like. Like I said, I'm much better with following someone else's rules rather than making up my own.
Rococo Flow: What's the strangest comment you've ever read/heard in regards to your work?

Heather:: I think my favorite comment is when people say that they go to my site when they've had a bad day and it makes them smile and feel better.

Rococo Flow: =). Do you have any thoughts on the animation industry right now?

Heather:: Well, for one, I'm incredibly happy that 2D animation seems to be on the comeback. I hate to hear people talk about it like it's been replaced or by 3D. That's like saying digital art has replaced traditional. I also hope the industry takes a hint from Ratatouille and focuses more on making a good story rather than just getting kids to laugh just by making pop culture references.I also really excited to see what people who are a little older than me do with the industry. I think the new generation of artists are really going to mix things up.

Rococo Flow: Yeah... it may be a little morbid to say, but change can't quite occur until the older generation dies out, (or at least stops dominating the industry).

Heather:: Totally agree.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any interests besides drawing?

Heather:: Well I've been in choir in some form or another probably since I began drawing. I love to sing and jazz choir is my favorite. I also played tennis for six years and taught for a couple of summers at my old school district's summer camps. Nowadays I play racquetball, I couldn't take choir this semester!!! I'm so sad. Anyway, yeah the reason I never took art in grade school was because I was taking choir and tennis. =)

Rococo Flow: If you weren't an artist, is there anything else you could see yourself doing?

Heather:: I'd probably major in voice. I have no idea what I'd do with that though. Yeah, if I couldn’t' draw I'd be up a creek.

Rococo Flow: *Hahaha* Just curious, how'd the name Makani come about?

Heather:: Oh, *haha* I just needed a new screen name around sophomore year of high school. Makani came from Ahe Lau Makani, a song we were singing in choir at the time. It means breeze or something. Or actually I needed a name for my liger character I had created since joining fanart.lionking.org. My screen name before that was Vela which was from a video game. It became Makani once I moved to deviantART just because Vela was taken *laughs*.

Rococo Flow: If you could meet anyone dead or alive, real or fictional, who would it be and why?

Heather:: Oh gosh I have no idea. I hate these questions. The only thing I can think of is I'd just like to meet some of my online friends that live across the country.

Rococo Flow: What's your biggest fear?

Heather:: Well other than what most people are afraid of, like losing a family member or losing a limb or sense…I'm really afraid of wasps and snakes.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any sort of personal motto?

Heather:: If I did, it'd probably be something like "Life's too short to get upset about something for more than about an hour" or "[..] to take anything very seriously". In other words, something I've noticed about myself is that I am whatever the opposite of a drama queen is *laughs*.

Rococo Flow: *laughs* That’s good.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any advice for other aspiring artists?

Heather:: Well there's the usual "Draw from life; draw all the time." type of generic thing that is annoyingly very true and helpful, and also just make sure you're drawing to entertain yourself, not just what you think other people will like seeing. If you can do both, then yay!

To see more work by Heather visit the following links:

http://acciobrain.ligermagic.com – Main portfolio
http://makani.deviantart.com – deviantART page
http://www.ligermagic.blogspot.com/ - Life drawing page
http://buttfacemakani.livejournal.com – Livejournal (Sketch posts)

You can also contact Heather at hlc617[at]gmail.com

Copycats Make the Graffiti Top 150

2007-12-30T18:23:00.000-05:00

If you noticed our return to posting back on the site, then you’ve already seen our recommendation to check out Facebook’s Graffiti application. While checking out the finalists in their latest competition, we came across lots original and funny ideas. Take for instance a bum cassette tape and an origami swan come to life. We were dismayed though at seeing some copied ideas.

Primarily, that of an orange who finds his wife cheating on him, which one can see here. It was immediately recognized as Malaise de l’Orange by weem which is a favorite of ours on deviantART. What struck us even more is that others realized that this picture was copied and yet nothing was done. Regardless of whether or not this artist has shown skill, she’s potentially benefiting from someone else’s idea without their consent. If she wins, who’s to say others won’t follow suit by copying other people’s original works?

Artist Profile: Dee

2007-12-29T22:39:00.000-05:00

When thinking of who to feature on the site, there wasn’t really a question of whether or not we should feature Dee, also known as niisan on her deviantART page. This was further reinforced by the number of other artists who also recommended that we interview her. Dee’s use of color and composition immediately grabs anyone who spares a glance, with characters that interact and perhaps hide some secret of a story. Currently a student at the University of California, Davis, the 20 year old states that she’s often mistaken as someone much younger due to her short stature, though she’s actually one of the oldest in her family. Dee has also gone on to participate in various collaborate projects including the artbook Le Grand Grimoire Visuel headed by comic artist Christy Lijewski.

How long have you been drawing?

Like a lot of other artists, I’ve been drawing for a rather long, long time. Just talking about it is making me feel so old!! When I was younger I remember drawing a lot of dinosaurs, however as I’ve gotten older I only seem to draw people! *laughs* If only I could expand and balance this somehow…

What made you interested in art?

I can’t exactly remember what made me interested. As a child, I had a great interest in children’s illustrated stories. This eventually developed into paintings, animation, comics, anime, and manga. I guess I was just a very visual person.

Who are your main influences?

I have too many! My influences include family, friends, and other professional and amateur artists, seriously, almost everyone and anyone. I also get influence by things I read, learn, hear, people I meet, and anything I take interest in (outside of art as well).

How would you describe your own style?

Style? What style? Actually, someone has once told me my style looks somewhat impressionistic but I think my style is rather experimental, sensitive and subtle. Also, I have this undying love for intertwining texts and images together. Almost all of my images will have some kind of text incorporated in it. *Laughs* I don’t know if that’s a style but it seems rather characteristic of my works.

How do ideas for pictures come to you? Is there anything specific that you have in your head first or do you just sketch until something looks good?

There are many different ways that ideas for pictures come to me, so I can’t say that there’s only one way. Ideas come from a lot various and random things around me but what is important is how I interpret those ideas on paper. Sometimes, I want to convey an emotion or an impression so I try expressing it through various means – either in the composition or the colors or what not. Other times, I doodle something that initially has no meaning but as I continue to work on it in its entirety, it builds its own meaning. Of course there are many times when I just want to experiment with a different type of program or setting or something =).

What programs do you often use?

I usually use Photoshop CS2 for touch ups (texture, text) but lately I’m using it to do everything. I also use Painter IX because I love how it mimics traditional media. Of course, Open Canvas 1.1 and MS Paint are simple and good programs that I still use occasionally to sketch and doodle on. Lately, I’ve discovered how advanced Paint Chat/Oekakis have become! They’re like their own miniature online CG program!!

Can you describe your technical approach to creating a picture?

Most of the time I sketch an image out on paper then I scan it in to be colored on the computer. I honestly don’t have the patience to draw directly with a tablet. I used to color with Open Canvas and Painter, but lately I am in love with Photoshop! It can create a lot of various effects and I love this about it. However, I usually use multiple programs for one image. For the most part, the images are colored in 300 dpi (600 dpi if I’m feeling up for it) but lately, I’ve been lazy and have been working small (72 dpi). After I color the image (or if it’s taking too long, I just stop and skip ahead), I filter and add textures and texts as a final touch.

What traditional media do you like to work with?

I honestly like working with a lot of different kinds of traditional media. There is something about being able to hold, feel, and control that brush/pen in your hand. For instance, I love watercolors. I love its versatility! It can be expressive with brushstrokes or smooth and clean. There’s just so much that it can do (I have yet to learn). Although I love colors, I also love monochrome work. Pencil has always been my origin and is still one of my absolute favorite mediums. I honestly think my pencil sketches look better than their colored counterparts. I like messing around with other media but the thing about traditional media is that it’s always a hassle to clean up…I’m just really messy and lazy *laughs*

What kind of environment do you like to work in?

I actually like drawing at night when I am focused since I am easily distracted during the day time, although this is probably really bad for my eyesight. Don’t get me wrong though, I do draw in the day! For the most part, I like to sit in a comfortable chair or sofa and doodle away. Sometimes I’m sitting on the floor or I’m outside on the grass. Actually, I guess anywhere is fine except at a desk *laughs*

Is there any particular type of music that you listen to when working on a piece?

Not in particular. I get so into working on a picture that I don’t really hear what it is I’m listening to. Probably something relaxing? However, I welcome any and all kinds of music!

Are there any projects that you're working on or planning to work on in the future?

In fact, there are!! I have a few collaborative projects that I am working and planning so hopefully you’ll see them in the near future (RF Note: Check out our post on Le Grand Grimoire Visuel which will feature work by Dee).

Do you frequently travel to conventions? What's your favorite part of the experience?

Actually, I don’t. I’ve only been to two ever, (slowly extending this list though). My favorite part has definitely been meeting other artists at the cons. It’s quite inspiring and amazing to see so many talented folks in one place. It’s also interesting to see people’s different styles, preferences, sketchbooks, inspirations, drawing habits, and such. There’s a lot I learn about an artist and his/her art style when I meet and talk to them versus just looking at their works online.

What are thoughts on the art and comic industries? Do you have any particular feelings with the emergence of online galleries like deviantART and the influence of anime and manga?

I think the art and comic industries are really competitive because there are more artists than there are jobs available for them. Honestly, I don’t know much about the comic industries, except that they’re growing and I am very fascinated at how deviantART connects different kinds of people and artists from all over the world. You have your photographers, your fine artists, you have professionals and amateurs. It really is amazing!! However, I do see a major flaw with the community. It’s like a market of supply and demand. I think this makes DA or any art community, lose their touch. People get caught up in things unrelated to art and it’s really quite depressing to see an artist who initially loved art, grow to hate it because of a bad experience.

The influence of anime and manga has never been greater! The younger generation is definitely more exposed to it then when I was younger. There is a lot of stuff I see nowadays that didn’t exist back then. I like how accessible they [manga and anime] have become although they do have a rather negative stigma in our culture.

Ever been a victim or art theft? If so, can you describe the experience?

Actually, a VERY long time ago, a friend of mine told me that my art works were being sold on eBay. At the time, this was somewhat flattering because they actually thought my works look good enough to sell!! *laughs* But you know, it was definitely not cool or legit. I can’t remember the details since it happened so long ago (and my memory is bad) but since it was the first time anything like that happened to me, I didn’t know what to do (I also didn’t have an eBay account at the time). Fortunately, my friend (who had an account) reported them and I haven’t seen any artworks sold illegally on eBay since. Honestly, if you’re an aspiring artist, I don’t understand why one would steal art in the first place.

What are your future aspirations?

I would love to illustrate children’s stories. Actually, I like meeting people who are so passionate about what they do in life. It’s very inspiring! I want to be like that and be able to do something just as enthusiastically, whether it is my job, my hobby or what not. Just to love living.

Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

I think I’m pretty normal. I like to hang out with my family and friends, watch movies and listen to music. Food is always a plus. In general: fun times, good memories, and lots of laughing.

Any advice for other aspiring artists?

Don’t ever limit yourself and keep exploring. Be curious and open! AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAVE FUN!! Enjoy what it is you do!

Any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Thank you for interviewing me! I’m really honored. Art isn’t really my priority, so this was a pleasant surprise.

To see more work by Dee visit the following links:

http://www.wild-swans.net/exit
http://yaoi.y-gallery.net/user/dumplingyum
http://niisan.deviantart.com

To contact Dee you can email her at triple_two[at]hotmail[dot]com

Happy Holidays =)

2007-12-26T10:13:00.000-05:00

Hi Rococo Flow readers,

We hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season. Once again it’s been a long wait but hopefully you’ll stick with us.

We’re sure many of you out there probably have probably heard of Facebook and if so have probably also checked out the Graffiti application. It has recently expanded and now hosts monthly contests with various themes. Participants have the opportunity to win a brand new Bamboo or Intuos 3 tablet from Wacom the sponsor of these competitions. We encourage everyone to check it out.

Artist Love

2007-11-17T13:42:00.000-05:00

We’d hate to admit that we ~~waste~~ spend ridiculous amounts of time perusing about LiveJournal. It’s hard not to though, especially when a number of artists use it to share behind the scenes work. Not to mention, all the other fun things you can do. Recently we stumbled upon this lovely little meme going around:

Fanartist Love Meme

We’re all about spreading the love, so we encourage you guys to check out the link and join in. <3

DeviantART Woes

2007-11-09T23:31:00.000-05:00

With each passing day, we at Rococo Flow find ourselves more hesitant to visit deviantART. For its humongous size, the front page often leaves a lot to be desired. If we’re lucky, we’ll see one or two pieces worth clicking on. However, it seems as if it’s always the same group of artists who we see over and over. Not that they don’t deserve it, but it’s sad to think of the number of talented artists who get buried beneath all the other ‘junk’. Also, though all the artists we’ve ever talked to are some of the nicest people around, it’s obvious that there tends to be certain tight-knit groups or cliques. It’s just human nature to do such. Only problem is, it can make it hard to branch out if you’re looking for new people based on another artist’s favorites, since it’ll be biased to their preferences.

We’re sure that are plenty of other issues and complaints that people have brought up against deviantART. However, it won’t change the fact that it’s the most popular online gallery with the biggest user base. We surely won’t stop visiting anytime soon, especially with the prospect of finding several online gems.

Pssst: Artists you should already be watching.

2007-11-01T23:31:00.000-04:00

We've got so many artists that we absolutely love, it'd be impossible to list them all. However, we thought we'd start by sharing those we feel everyone should already know about. If not, we hope you'll find some new favorites. =)

We'd also love to hear about some of your favorites too. Send us an e-mail!!

Questionstar.org - The online gallery of Aysha Shehim. Enough said. If you haven't seen her work, then please go to her gallery now because you're definitely missing out!!!

Chira-chira - We've interviewed her before, but who says we can't link to her again? Especially when it seems that she's open for commissions :D

lsvr - Beautiful and delicate works. Definitely needs more love.

wredwrat- So yet another artist we've interviewed. But seriously, her art has gotten even better in the last few months and she's usually open for commissions.

RUFFTOON- The gallery of Johanne Matte. You can also find more work at her deviantART gallery. She's featured in Flight Vol. 2 and 3 and maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to get an interview with her.

Artist Profile: Agnieszka Futa

2007-10-30T17:41:00.000-04:00

Bold and intriguing are a few of the words one could use to describe the work of Agnieszka Futa. Known by some as sawayaka, this 20 year old hails from Lublin, Poland and is a graduate of the Secondary of Fine Arts In Lublin. Though she specialized in artistic fabrics (like batiks) and weaving, she prefers working with digital art. When she’s not drawing she enjoys hanging out with friends, drinking, head-banging, and annoying her cat. Her illustrations were recently featured in purpleSKY magazine and for those of you who love her work she’s currently open for commissions.

How long have you been doing art and what got you interested?

I've been drawing and creating stuff ever since I remember, it has always been a natural aspect of my life. I don't think there's a particular thing that could have spurred an interest in art in me, I guess I simply inherited it from my mother - she's also an art school graduate.

Can you name some of your influences and what is it about their work that inspires you?

First and foremost - Japanese woodblock prints. I like the fact that ukiyo-e artists never tried to convey a sense of illusion in their works, they simply wanted to create something aesthetically pleasing (and in some cases - something with an actual message that would be easier to get across with a limited amount of means of expression). The Japanese have a great sense of color, shape and composition and that's definitely something I look up to. As I mentioned earlier, minimalism also gets to me, I don't like to spend hours trying to create an illusion of reality (like I had to during my despised painting classes), I'd rather focus on general expression and mood of my pieces.

My favourite ukiyo-e artist would be Utagawa Kuniyoshi, not only because of his admirable skills - his sometimes brutal and macabre images have a certain appeal to me too. While we're at that 'brutal and macabre' theme, I have to add a few more influences to my list - and that would be film and music. I love things like short, absurd movies (like David Lynch's 'The Alphabet' for instance) or music videos whose creators aren't afraid of taking it to the next level (like Floria Sigismondi). As for the music, I'm leaning toward heavier stuff - not necessarily visceral (I'm certainly not a true metalhead), but definitely it has to be vivid and give me energy.

Your work seems to contain various graphic design and print elements, how would you describe your own style?

Well, it definitely has some elements of underground manga in it (I'm thinking about artists like Furuya Minoru or Matsumoto Taiyou). A bit insane yet stylized. I put my main focus on colors as I think it's the most important part of every piece of art (unless it's black and white of course) - flat, vivid colors and thought out color schemes (honestly, I can spend a lot of time on it) would be the most noticeable characteristics of my style. The rest lies in my subconscious-ness and thus I cannot describe it ;D

How do you get ideas for your artwork? Are you ever trying to convey anything in particular?

I SEE THINGS *laughs*. I basically draw what I see when I close my eyes while I'm tired or drunk or both. Sometimes images come to my mind when I listen to the music, sometimes I base them on a dream that I had. I don't think I'm trying to convey anything, perhaps I do, but as I said, it revolves around my subconscious-ness - I can't really verbalize it. My works are probably my emotional states transferred to pictures.

Can you describe your process to creating a picture?

1. First, I get the idea (see above :]).
2. I plug in my magnificent tablet.
3. I openCorel Painter X.
4. I make a general sketch.
5. I draw a finished line art over it (with a 'pen' brush).
6. I save it in .psd format and open it in Photoshop.
7. And this is where the fun begins - I can spend hours coming up with various color schemes, effects and whatnot. I can't really describe that part as I simply try out as many things as possible until I'm satisfied (and sometimes I'm not and I just stop working on the picture to spare myself some frustration).

What type of environment do you work in?

Uhh, in my room (green walls, lots of cds, skulls, usually some beer cans and a full ashtray, some books, random things) in front of my monitor, sitting comfortably in my armchair :3

Is there any particular music you listen to while you're working?

Nothing in particular, whatever I feel like listening at the moment.

What programs and traditional media do you typical use?

Corel Painter X and Adobe Photoshop 7. I used to draw the lineart with ink and then scan it and add colors in Photoshop, but ever since I got a tablet I don't do it anymore.

Are there any projects you're working on or any you hope to work on in the future?
Well, I finished working on a commission for the purpleSKY magazine some time ago and right now I'm just simply taking commissions from random people or draw for myself. Nothing I'd call a 'project' though. I don't have any particular plans either.

Do you have any thoughts on the art industry?

Not really. It's like everything else in the world, some good points, and some bad points.

Do you have any experiences working with any other artists? If not, are there in particular you would love to work with?

Kind of yes, I did a collaboration piece with Inechi which you can view here. It was a really fun experience and we're looking forward doing something like this again (I mean, when I'll stop being lazy/busy :D).

Out of all your pictures, is there any that means the most to you?

Perhaps it would be 'Welcome home, brother' (pictured to the right) but I'd rather not get into details, it's a quite weird story actually. Anyway, all of my babies mean a lot to me, so it really is a tough choice…

What are your future goals and aspirations?

I would LOVE to be a respected free-lance illustrator and earn enough to make a decent living. Right now I'm just starting (having graduated recently and everything), but most of all I'd like to work around music-oriented things (like t-shirt designs, CD jackets, posters, things like that). I was lucky that my first bigger commission was from a music magazine, so I guess it was a good start.

Do you have any other hobbies or interests besides drawing?

Criminal psychology, movies, weird manga, music, beer, concerts. I used to be into photography and painting but that was a looong time ago, while I was still attending school. Now I'm cured. :D

If you were not an artist, is there anything else you could see yourself doing?

I wanted to be a psychologist a few years ago. But then I came to a conclusion that human minds are boring and repetitive (no matter how much you might believe the contrary, it's the truth) when it comes to their deepest, the most primal aspect of personality. I decided I don't want to spend the rest of my life analyzing it for money. I'd rather have some more fun than that. So yeah, If I wasn't an artist, I'd become a roadie or something.

If you had a time machine, what time period would you go back to and why?

The nineties, just because everything seemed more real then, I can't find a good explanation for it though. It's just the way I feel.

Do you have any favorite quotes?

Uhhh... Not really. I don't quote people. I'm able to produce weird sentences by myself.

Do you have any advice for any aspiring artists?

If you have an overly technical approach to your works, you'll fail as a human being :D. Just have fun and that's all. If you put your vital energy in your art instead of cold calculating, people will notice it and appreciate it more. And it will sell better! XD

Visit the following links to see more works by Agnes:

http://dizect.com/ - Main portfolio
http://sawayaka.deviantart.com/ - deviantART account

You can also contact her at afuta[at]o2.pl

Artist Profile: Natalia Alexeeva

2007-10-27T23:48:00.000-04:00

If you couldn’t tell from looking at her art Natalia Constantinovna Alexeeva is all kinds of awesome. (Yes, we found it imperative to use her entire name). Especially since she shares an undying love for all things Kingdom Hearts and gave us links to all kinds of funky music. Those of you who’ve passed by her deviantART gallery know her as chinup, and know first hand, just how groovy her stuff is and on top of that, she does all her work traditionally. A recent graduate of the University of San Diego, this 22 year old Moscow-born artist now resides in Southern California while doing web design work.

Rococo Flow: Care to give us some background about yourself?

Natalia: I was born in Russia, left the country with my mom when I was 12, and have lived all over the place ever since then. Most of my family is back in Moscow still but I visit them as often as I can. I grew up sort of nomadic, I suppose. We lived in Italy for a little while and I used to get by pretty all right in Italian and German, but now I've forgotten them both! I came to permanently live in Southern California when I was about to enter high school, which was nice because California is such a beautiful place. I stayed here for university and would have moved to Vancouver for grad school, but I was low on money and decided to stay in San Diego for a while longer. I just landed a very good job very near my home here.

Rococo Flow: Is it an art related job?

Natalia: Yes! Or rather, it is design-related. Design is art, right? I do webdesign when I don't work traditionally. Webdesign is something I've been doing since high school, so it's been a natural way for me to get money. I freelanced a bit before now.

Rococo Flow: So how long have you been drawing and doing things that were art related? Why did you want to become an artist?

Natalia: Hmm, I think it all started with color. I am fascinated with colors and the way they match up and resonate in different ways. I think I was able to grasp how cool that was even when I was younger. I've always been a right-brain oriented person, *ahaha*. I used to draw a lot when I was in my teens, but my not-so-secret secret is I can't draw at all!

Rococo Flow: *laughs* Why do you say that? The pieces you come up with are really fantastical. Who are your influences?

Natalia: Ah, every time I draw something it's like starting from scratch, I don't feel any real experience backing up my hand. It's all completely intuitive. It's the same with design, that intuitive approach. I have to look at technically strong artists' work sometimes and try to figure out what they did right and what I'm doing wrong. Of course I tend to go with my first impulse anyway since I like things that are rough around the edges.

Japanese ukiyo-e prints are my greatest inspiration. I love the way they're simultaneously rough and delicate, and they have such a cool history! I love artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige. I believe those artists have had a large influence on Takashi Murakami and the Superflat movement, and on contemporary artists like Yoshitomo Nara. And of course I adore Giant Robot and its own artists, whom Murakami and others influenced in turn. Like, Kozyndan, for instance. I have been known to liberally rip off Jeana Sohn, too. Jeana Sohn is amazing.

Er, I mean BORROW from… be INSIPIRED by…*Ahah*.

THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER! *Haha* Seriously, I get a lot I get a lot of inspiration from people like the Giant Robot folks.

Rococo Flow: How would you describe your own style?

Natalia: Oh, that's tough for me to say, I guess whimsical? Playful? I use a lot of color and drips and splashes. I did some mock children’s book illustrations for a senior project in college, they weren't exactly Rembrandt, obviously, but I felt I'd found my element.

Rococo Flow: A lot of your work could be seen as surreal. How do you get ideas for your drawings and paintings?

Natalia: I tend to go with a single image that I see somewhere that strikes me for whatever reason, buildings catching the sun for instance, and then I try to recreate that feeling. Or else I'll see an illustration or a piece of art and think, “wow, amazing, I want to figure out how that was done”. So I try and do it. Of course my own style sort of transforms anything I put down on paper or canvas to something unexpected. That's the being intuitive part.

Rococo Flow: Are you ever trying to convey a message in your pieces?

Natalia: Mostly just moods. The feeling of wanting to run outside, barefoot in the grass or more sinister things, if I'm so inclined. Sometimes I'll just doodle something that looks pretty good and subsequently paint it, and then someone else will come to me with a little story about what the picture means, and I won't correct them.

Rococo Flow: Do you use any programs for your artwork or is it all traditional media?

Natalia: It's all traditional, that I recall. Though I do I photograph my paintings using a terrible, terrible ancient camera, so I have to use Photoshop to tweak colors back to their original look here and there.

Rococo Flow: What's your general approach to creating a picture?

Natalia: 1) Look for a paint-able surface. (My preference is canvas or wood board, though I sometimes desecrate book covers and other things that are flat).
2) Choose colors to work with. (Usually I sketch out the whole deal and match the swatches. Also, this usually all this goes awry and I end up with something different).
3) Sketch out areas onto the canvas/board/etc. with fingers, pencils, anything handy. (By this time I am sort of caught in the moment, *ahaha*).
4) WILL the piece to be good with my MIND (occasionally effective).

Natalia: The problem with traditional art is that it costs money every time so you can’t waste materials. Oh and let's not forget: Step 0 is prepping the canvas and step 5 is putting on finishing touches, usually with materials like marker that would otherwise run under spray paint or water.

Rococo Flow: Is there any particular media that you use most often?

Natalia: Acrylics, spray paint, fine-point marker on canvas or wood board. I've tested out some of trickier stuff in the past, like paper-machétexturing or applique, but those shorten the life of a painting since paper doesn't hold up very well to much of anything.

Rococo Flow: What's your favorite?

Natalia: I HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE THING?

Rococo Flow: *laughs*

Natalia: Um, acrylics. They're smooooooooooooooooth. Oh and wood board! It is a pain to prep, but the natural swirl of the grain is so beautiful.

Rococo Flow: *laughs* It never really hit me until a year or so ago that one didn't need to use 'traditional' canvases in order to get good results. The wood boards are definitely pretty. Do you have any projects that are in the works?

Natalia: I am currently a little obsessed with Russian folk tale illustrations, especially Ivan Bilibin's work. I'm doing a painting right now of the three fairy-tale knight-brothers that Bilibin's so famous for illustrating. His work is really magnificent and inspiring.

Rococo Flow: Oh that sounds interesting. Do you hang your works in a gallery anywhere or is it possible for people to purchase your works some other way?

Natalia: I've currently got a couple of pieces up near the Arts Center in Escondido, those are for sale and I'm always open to online commissions.

Rococo Flow: Awesome. Do you have any thoughts on the art industry today?

Natalia: Hmm, I don’t know, the art industry today's got a lot to give, so grab what you can? QUICKLY? On a more serious note, I feel that the overlap of "design" and "art" has brought a lot of opportunity for exploration. It's not all urinals in museums anymore.

Rococo Flow: *haha*

Natalia: It's all right for good art to be beautiful to look at. Of course, art history being in a sort of lawless and Armageddon-like state at all times, you'd have no problem finding 50 people who disagree with my last statement, *ahaha*.

Rococo Flow: True. Art is such a subjective thing at times, yet we try really hard to make it objective. I guess to even the playing field.

Natalia: No one who has any real sense can just TELL YOU what is real MODERN ART anymore it's completely subjective to the MILIEU or whatever that's called. Basically I like that magazines like Giant Robot and Beautiful Decay have established their own milieu and criteria. It feels very much like standing up to THE MAN, as with all new art movements :-) *ahaha* I am sounding very dumb right now.

Rococo Flow: *laughs* No you're not. When someone mentions standing up to the man, I always think of the Impressionist movement. They may have been laughed at back then, but look how respected they are now, after many years… so you never know :-). I suppose it's all up to perspective.

Natalia: ....And many years after today, after all of us are properly rich and famous, I don't even want to KNOW what the milieu will be laughing at. Probably dead cats in museums or has that already been done? Anyway, it's good enough for me that modern information technologies, digital media, etc. have given recognition to so many truly talented and skilled artists.

Rococo Flow: Agreed, so what are you future aspirations?

Natalia: Well, for now I am going to work in the webdesign field, since it is such lucrative field all things considered. I find interactive design is just as exciting as art for art's sake. There is such potential in programs like Flash where art becomes interactive! But I'll keep painting in the meanwhile. I find traditional art, especially traditional media in this day and age, isn't something I can just abandon. People work in Painter and forget the way real paint FEELS. It's a messier experience, of course, but the mess is 100% organic and therefore good for you.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any interests besides painting?

Natalia: I love pop music a little too much. I write for a website called aurgasm.us (RF: Music fans should definitely check it out!!). Of course there's manga and anime, without which I wouldn't have ended up befriending such amazing people as Chira and her friend Muun (they do Salad Days). I'm a little less interested in anime these days, but I still work with the Karaoke Kaizokudan at West-coast cons. We run the Karaoke rooms. :-). I play videogames too, everything from Battlefront to Flight sims to Square-Enix RPG's. I also read a lot of books. I like old stuff and historical fiction. I am only now discovering Georgette Heyer.

Rococo Flow: Oh… do you play Kingdom Hearts?

Natalia: Yeah. This time last year all I could talk about was Kingdom Hearts. I printed and sold some tee shirts that said stuff like “GET UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK!” and I made one with a picture of Demyx's sitar strapped across on the back. It was good times.

Rococo Flow: Oh man a t-shirt would be cool…. so if you could meet anyone, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Natalia: Uhh, I am terrible at these questions. Pushkin, probably, because he's be such an unpredictable conversationalist, maybe he could tell me what "The Bronze Horseman" really meant, if it was really about Peter the Great and stuff.

Rococo Flow: This next question, I probably should have asked earlier since the topic came up, but what type of music do you enjoy listening to?

Natalia: I have so many bands I like it's a little ridiculous, but then music is OK to be crazy about so long as it is good. Ohoho! Off the top of my head I'll name the New Pornographers, Of Montreal, Destroyer, Ojos de Brujo, Maximo Park, Go!Go!7188, and Jens Lekman. I've also recently discovered Detektivbyran, whose music sounds a lot like Yann Tiersen's Amelie soundtrack, BUT BETTER. I listen to a lot of baroque pop, which is like pop but with orchestras and interesting instrumental arrangements and things. Think The Decemberists. BUT THEN OF COURSE WE KNOW SEAL'S "KISS FROM A ROSE" IS LIKE THE GREATEST SONG EVER.

Rococo Flow: Hahaha… definitely all awesome choices. Do you have any advice for any other aspiring artists?

Natalia: Ah, I suppose something like this: be ready to be modest, and be ready to stand proudly by your work. Produce as much work as you can and be HUNGRY for inspiration and for the creative process. Hm, I don't know if "modest" is even the right word for it. "Professional", perhaps because "be modest" isn't good advice, but "be serious about your work" certainly is.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Natalia: "Thanks a bunch" is all I got!

To see more work by Natalia visit the following links:

tiger-tiger.org – portfolio of recent works
chinup@deviantART – DA account
motorbike@livejournal – Livejournal

You can also contact Natalia at nativegirl[at]gmail.com

News: Le Grand Grimoire Visuel

2007-10-25T13:32:00.000-04:00

Well here's something to definitely get excited about: An artbook featuring some of youngest hot talent out there now. We had the honor of featuring one of the ladies, lawnmowerpants, as our very first interview!!

So be sure to check out their site and here's the advertisement straight from the artists themselves:

Le Grand Grimoire Visuel

A full color art book featuring over sixty brand new illustrations from female illustrators and comic artists from around the world!

13 of the hottest young artists from around the globe have gathered together to present this full color art book filled with their own unique renditions of classical mythological monsters and demons.

Over 80 pages in length, hardcover and case bound, Le Grand Grimoire presents all new never before seen artwork from some of the most talented female artists on the scene today!

Headed by comic artist C.Lijewski [RE:Play, Next Exit] and featuring cover art by Eisner-nominated artist Becky Cloonan [Demo, American Virgin] Le Grande Grimoire features original illustrations from:

k.j.s
Bonhwa
Pandabaka
deadums
detal star
[K]
Greg
Dee
Maddy
LMP (lawnmowerpants)
Emlan
Cara

As a special bonus, the first 200 orders will receive a limited edition dust jacket! For $35 (US dollars, S&H included) you can reserve your copy today at:
http://www.lithe-apathy.com/LGG_artbook/

++++++++++

In anticipation of Le Grand Grimoire visuel (shipping January 2008), members will be promoting the artbook by selling limited edition postcards, giving you a sneak peek of what's to come. Check back here for updated schedules of where you can pick up these postcards and talk to some of the artists behind this very special project!

Our current schedule:
Yaoi-con- October 26-28th, San Fransisco, CA
Artists in attendance: Dee (artist alley)

Nekocon- November 2-4th, Hampton, VA
Artists in attendance: C.Lijewski (dealer's room)

Review: Style School Vol. 1

2007-10-24T00:43:00.001-04:00

Hello Rococo Flow Readers!!

So wow… there are definitely some apologies deserved here. It’s been over a month since the last update and even that wasn’t much. Things have been inexplicably busy, busy, busy. However, Rococo Flow would like to apologize to the artists who have been waiting ever so patiently to see their interviews published, and to the many others who are still waiting to hear back from us. Not to mention, the readers who’ve been waiting to see some new stuff.

As always, thank you to those who’ve sent e-mails of encouragement and sent recommendations our way. We’ll do our best to feature the variety of artists out there.

Rococo Flow is NOT FINISHED yet and we’re not giving up at all. There may be period of stand still but this is just the beginning!!!

We would also love to give a great big shout out to ebeelove for creating a syndicated feed for the site. This should be handy for those of you with livejournals who want to read the site from your friend page. It can be accessed here.

Last but not least here’s a book review to tide you over, done by the wonderful ~Sophia.

Review: Style School v. 1

In the last decade, the popularity of manga, anime and Japanese pop culture has, for better or worse, increased exponentially. Along with the introduction of new artists and art forms came the inevitable market frenzy to capitalize on it. “How to Draw Manga” books have taken over the art shelves in bookstores around the country. While it is good practice to consult an instructional book when you wish to learn something, the plethora of books by people who have never before drawn in the anime-manga style can simply makes one’s eyes bleed. Luckily there are some decent instructional books out there and have found one worthy of attention!

Style School (vol. 1) is an instructional illustration book straight from the source of the anime-manga world: Japan. Published by Dark Horse this fall, it is a paperback with 144 glossy color pages and the following synopsis courtesy of Amazon.com:

Japan's leading manga illustration instructional guide (titled SS Magazine in Japan) comes to America! Learn the techniques of Japan's top manga and anime artists in Style School, showing step-by-step methods to help today's up-and-coming illustrators master the use of pen, brush, paint, marker, screen tones, computer modeling and other tricks of the trade. Gain insight into the weapons of choice of today's top creators, especially those brands and tools that are so hard to find outside Japan. See for the first time the eye-popping art of tomorrow's manga and anime stars, page after gorgeous page of spectacular visual imagination. And find out how to submit your work to be considered for publication in upcoming issues of SS Magazine in Japan! (Source)

Don’t let the stereotypical big eyed girl-boy and cutesy robot cover fool you, the first couple of pages of the book are taken by 6 two page spreads, each with their own distinct style. Style School focuses on coloring illustrations broken down into the following sections:

• Style School How-To : Color
• Sky School
• Special Stage: Color
• Style School How-To: Black & White
• Sea School
• Special Stage: Black & White
• After School

The first instructional section, Style School How-To, is all about color. The different mediums covered in this section are markers, colored inks, watercolors, acrylics, 2D & 3D software, and a comparison of different coloring materials. The second instructional section is all about black & white. The techniques included creating using technical pen and screentones.

The instructional pieces have a good balance between images and text. They include the basic instructions along with tips and comments from the artist. The comprehensive instructions help newbies experiment with different mediums even if they don’t have any previous experience with it, but at the same time, the variety of techniques and artists features provide even experienced artists with a new perspectives and techniques.

One great example is instructional piece by Imperial Boy. The finished piece looks completely 2D, but a glimpse into Imperial Boy’s creation process reveals that he actually uses 3D modeling to build up the environment of his works. The experimentation section is especially detailed in that it not only provides an example of how a certain medium would look like but also a picture of the exact tool and brand that was used. My main critique is that the websites of the featured artists are nowhere to be found in the book. This is especially annoying since the majority of the artists are not English speakers and are not easily found on websites like Deviantart.

Sky School and Sea School include submissions from the general public in color and black & white respectively. The quality of the art ranges from those by the artists whose art is featured in the instruction section to those by 14 year olds who don’t have the skills to match what they see in their mind. Fortunately, the editors have made sure to size each image accordingly so that the more interesting ones are bigger.

The Special Stages of the book include art by featured artists. The art in this section vary more greatly in style and include short comics and combinations of text and art. The After School section is, not surprisingly, one long commercial for Dark Horse for their upcoming publications.

Overall I would suggest everyone to take a look at this book. The wide variety of artistic styles and mediums featured provides a great way for an artist to experiment and expand.
The book itself, is also a great piece of eye candy and with a list price of just $14.95, you’d only need to give up your Starbucks coffee for three days. Amazon also offers a couple of used copies for less than $10.

Links

Style School at Amazon
Style School at Dark Horse

Thank You!!!

2007-09-01T09:29:00.001-04:00

Hello all Rococo Flow readers!!!

We just wanted to thank all of you, who have come through the blog and supported the site and artists. Also, a major thanks to all of you who have spread the word by telling your friends about Rococo Flow and have linked to us from your own blogs and sites.

As for the articles, we apologize for the slow down, many more will be coming very soon. Things have just gotten a little busy as of late, but rest assured we plan to interview as many artists as possible and have lots of great interviews coming your way.

That being said, please be sure to e-mail us with any recommendations that you may have. Don't hesitate at all! We want to give exposure to everyone and find more about all the awesome artists out there. Doesn't matter if you think they might be to pro or anything else along those lines. Furthermore, you can e-mail us with any comments, suggestions, etc. any time. We'd love to hear how we can improve.

Once again, thank you all so much and stayed tuned!

-Rococo Flow

Artist Profile: Ryan Mauskopf

2007-08-23T23:26:00.000-04:00

Ryan Mauskopf known as RYE-BREAD to those who frequent his deviantART gallery is a young man with lots of potential. Hailing from New York City with plans to attend the School of Visual Arts in the fall, this 18 year old has work that seems influenced by graphic art, with some clean looking look work and great attention to detail. He was also recently featured in the latest Tokyopop Rising Stars of Manga compilation and is currently working on a project for them.

Could you give a brief bio about yourself and anything else that may be interesting?

I'm a tiny person, short and skinny. I love muffins and tea and I wish breakfast could be every meal of the day. New York City is honestly the greatest city on earth, and I can't imagine living anywhere else. I think long hair on guys is really sexy. I also think guys are really sexy ^_^

How long have you been drawing?

Pretty much since my days in the womb, I vaguely remember doodling on my mom's belly.

What are your reasons for pursuing art as a career?

I love to tell stories. The artistic field is one of the few creative fields that offer the opportunity to instill chilling awe and breathtaking beauty in its admirers, and I think it's appreciation like that which keeps my pencil moving.

Who are your main influences?

I suppose I should list them because there are so many:

1. Hayao Miyazaki: His films are legendary, and their whimsical charm is unparalleled in the animation world.

2. Shirow Masamune: What can I say, I love anything cyberpunk. However, Shirow Masamune took it all to the next level by not only including breathtakingly detailed artwork and realistic characters, but also technically complicated storylines that manage to analyze the very meaning of human existence itself. That’s pretty impressive for a comic book, huh?

3. Monkey Punch: Wow. He's probably clinically insane, which is what makes his fluid ink lines flow and his stories rush towards their dark and witty destinations. I'll read or watch anything that's got Lupin in the title.

4. The online artistic community is particularly inspiring. sThe young creativity out there today is so impressive that the old Masters would be put to shame.

How would you describe your own style?

That's really quite difficult, because I have so many. I think a style is something that should be malleable: If you can bend it and shape it and condition it to fit the mood of your drawing, the emotional impact of your work will be equally as prominent as your visuals. The spectrum of my artistic signature will stray from photorealism to stylized realism to cute and cuddly, so at this point it's difficult to define. I will say, though, that despite the many facets of my style are influenced by contemporary Japanese anime and manga artists.

Can you describe your technical approach to creating a picture?

I work completely digitally. I use a Wacom Intuos 2 tablet on a 24-inch iMac to create my art. The key to drawing, I've always said, is to work in iterations. Even if you have a grandiose vision it's important to start simple and keep refining the drawing until you're satisfied. I'll start with a simple sketch in Photoshop at an extremely low opacity and larger brush so as force myself not to concentrate on the details. Then, I simply keep drawing revisions on newer layers with exponentially higher opacities and larger brushes, adding more nuances and details and adjustments until I'm finally satisfied. Then, I delete the lower layers on which I've drawn the previous versions, leaving only the final drawing. And this is only the sketching phase *haha*. The final drawing stages come when I import my sketch into Painter and use realistically-styled mediums to finalize the piece. I take advantage of zooming in a lot and working impossibly small because it's detailing like that which can only be done on a computer.

What programs do you primarily use?

I use Photoshop CS3 for sketching and texture work. Then, for linework and anything that's going to be seen in the final image, I use vCorel Painter X. I'll often work with Maya 8 for complicated 3D work such as cars and backgrounds and machinery and robots. I love robots. I render my 3D models with a vector renderer to define the preliminary linework and then trace over it with a charcoal brush in Painter to give it a hand-drawn look. The process is very time-consuming but it's accurate and can end up looking damn good.

What traditional media do you like to work with?

I don't usually work this way, but when I do it's just a simple pencil. I love how easy it is to get line variations, and there so many nuances in the way you can handle a pencil that using one can be such an exhilarating artistic pleasure.

Describe your work environment.

Here's a photo:

1) 24-inch Apple iMac
2) Wacom Intuos 2 9x12 Tablet
3) Epson Perfection 4180 Photo Scanner
4) iPod Video (White, 30Gig)
5) iPod Nano (Blue, 4Gig)
6) TV Shows, Movies, & Anime DVD's
7) Artbooks, Manga, & Storyboard Books
8) HP OfficeJet 5610xi Copier/Faxer/Scanner/Printer
9) Crappy Verizon Phone
10) 3 Years of NewType Magazine Issues
11) Anime/Classical/Soundtrack CD's

And, of course, there's music. I couldn't ever draw anything without my oddly mismatched tastes in Classical, Jazz, Alternative Rock, Old-School Pop, Indie, and Hilary Duff.

Anytime you're facing an art block, how do you get yourself drawing again?

Watch a movie or look at an art book. Inspiration is the best thing to pull you out of a block.

Do you think there's a divide between those who do digital art and those who work primarily with traditional media?

Unfortunately, yes. I know a lot of traditional artists who frown upon digital creation because they believe that the computer somehow draws for you. This, obviously, is not true, and the large communities of those who scorn the computer are usually those who have not yet tried working on them. The truth is the computer is simply an extension of your abilities, equally as much as a brush and paint are. I say if something allows you to accomplish something faster and better (but not necessarily with more ease), why not embrace it? If the nay-saying traditional artists had their way, we'd still be drawing on cave walls by the firelight.

What are your future aspirations?

I'd love to be a comic book artist, as it's one of those rare professions in the art world that allow you complete creative freedom. This could change, though, because there are so many opportunities for artists out there that something amazing just may come up out of the blue. Who knows? I will say, though, that I'd never like to be an art teacher, for two reasons: 1) because I find more satisfaction in giving my art to the world rather than in wasting time explaining how it was created, and 2) because I can't deal with gaggles of hyper children. Trust me, I've tried in the past and it's just torture. I give kudos to those who do, though, because they're true warriors.

Could you talk more about your participation in the Tokyopop Rising Stars 7 book?

Anyway, there's really not much to say about my participation in RSoM other than how sick (literally, I became ill) it made me to work on something so ambitious in such a short period of time. Because of procrastination, I really only had three weeks to work on the story from start to finish, and thusly I barely slept. I wrote my script, storyboarded each page, and then drew each panel in Photoshop with heavy integration with Maya for all the 3D elements I had to incorporate into the story. That meant tracing over panel after panel of vector-rendered robots, helmets, guns, and backgrounds in excruciating detail. It was all worth it, though, even if I did work myself to sickness. I'm so glad I got voted into the RSoM book by fans, because if it weren't for them my work would have been all for nothing really. I owe a lot to them, because RSoM has opened a lot of doors for me, especially with TOKYOPOP, and hopefully my upcoming projects will hit the store shelves sometime later this year. :]

What interests do you have besides drawing?

I love making music. As unusual as it may sound, I'm an accomplished Mallet Percussionist (a xylophonist, in laymen's terms) and I'm just now beginning my transition into the world of the piano. You can watch one of my short performances here. It's just something I'm really passionate about, and there's a real kind of satisfaction I get from making music, much like the kind of thrill one gets from making art.

Give a list of your 5 top favorite bands.
Muse, Lemon Jelly, Sigur Ros, The Click Five (their old stuff), and The Seatbelts. Also, I know he's not a band, but anything by George Gershwin is pretty kickass too.

If you could meet anyone real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

President Bush. I'd really like to kick him in the shin.

Do you have any advice for other aspiring artists?

Be inspired. Always keep your eyes open and your stylus moving. :]

To see more work by Ryan visit his deviantART gallery.

You can also email him at mousekopf[at]gmail.com

Artist Profile: Rachel E. Morris

2007-08-15T02:34:00.000-04:00

Rachel E. Morris known as subeo to those more familiar with her deviantART gallery, is a recent graduate from the Pratt Institue with an awesome illustrative style. Especially her storybook pieces, that look like they come straight out of a classic children’s book. Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, she currently lives in New York City with her boyfriend of 4 years and 2 cats. In the mean time, the 22 year old artist is working on a flash video game while working on other side projects that come her way.

How long have you been drawing?

Pretty much ever since I can remember, my parents still have some pretty hilarious drawings I made when I was a little kid. I never really took any classes, aside from required high school art classes and a summer camp or two until I got to college, but I was always, always drawing.

What made you interested in becoming an artist?

Honestly, I picked it as a career path because I didn't really know what else to do. I was such a slacker in high school that the only colleges I felt I could get into were art colleges, as drawing always came pretty naturally to me, so I guess I just figured I might as well. Of course, once I got there it became more of a passion, but even now I worry about it losing its appeal for me someday now that I have to do it for a living and not just for fun.

Who are your main influences?

I'm influenced by a huge amount of things, but if I had to pick a few I'd say Egon Schiele, Winsor McCay, Hokusai, Hiroshige (lots of ukiyo-e artists), illuminated manuscripts, Albrecht Durer, Willy Pogany… it goes on. Mostly master artists, I'm not as good at keeping up with what's going on now as I probably should be.

How would you describe your style?

I'm not very good at this kind of thing, but I'd probably say it's a blend of western and eastern aesthetics, emphasizing line and color and the human figure. I've had more than one person tell me my work is complex and simple at the same time, a contradiction I think applies to lots of things in my life.

How do you get ideas for your artwork? Do you ever start with a message that you're trying to get across to the audience?

As an illustrator most of my work is assigned to me, so a lot of the time the basic idea is already there. Usually, I am not trying to get a message across so much as tell a story, even when I draw for myself, though I guess you could argue they're the same thing. When I'm coming up with my own ideas, I get a lot of influence from the lives of myself and people around me, as well as the culture around me (books, movies, etc.).

Can you describe your technical approach to creating a picture?

I think it's pretty standard - I start with thumbnails, move up to sketches of details (I usually end up using myself or my boyfriend as a reference)...sometimes I'll scan these in and create a composite sketch in Photoshop, which I enlarge and print out. I'll use this as a guide for the finish - I pretty much always do linework with traditional media and colors with digital.

What's your work environment like? Are you the kind of person that has papers everywhere? Or do you need to have a clear open space?

I love having everything organized, but it never stays organized for long. I think I work better when I have a clear open space but I also think art supplies are probably the hardest thing on earth to keep neat and tidy.

What traditional media do you most often use?

Drawing, as opposed to painting, has always been my forte. Depending on the look I'm going for, I'll draw with a pencil, dip-pen, brush, technical pen, or ball-point pen. I'm trying to get more into watercolors lately though. I don't like to limit myself and I'd like to branch out a bit more and use some of the other supplies cluttering up my studio - it's just that you can't beat pen and paper for ease of use and simplicity, and it allows me to work extremely fast.

What programs do you primarily use for your artwork?

It's pretty much all Photoshop with me. I color most of my stuff digitally and Photoshop is the only way to go. It's not the industry standard for nothing! I just wish it weren't so expensive.

You recently worked on project that involved an interactive mural for the Adobe CS3 launch. Could you tell us more about that experience?

I didn't do anything creative with that job, it was my first real job after all, and it was fun. It's not really what I "do", if you know what I mean - I'm trained to draw and color, but this was a lot of computer work. I mean, I know how to do that sort of thing, but I was out of my element. Still, I like being able to do so many different kinds of things, I think it keeps me from getting bored and it certainly opens up a lot more job opportunities for me. The Adobe job was fun to watch evolve, but like I said, all I did was convert .png sequences into .fla files...necessary, but not really worth talking about.

Can you tell us about any other projects you're working on and anything that we can look forward to hearing about?

Right now I'm working on backgrounds for a flash game at Pop & Company, which is a lot of fun. I may be working with Nickelodeon as a freelance illustrator, just for marketing or DVD covers and stuff for Avatar, if they like the sketches I have to turn into them sometime this month. That's kind of interesting...to completely ape someone else's style. Not really my thing, but I'm still at the point where I need all the work I can get to survive.

What are thoughts on the future of the art and animation industry?

I don't really follow fine art as much as I probably should - or graphic arts, for that matter. I'm excited that art seems to be borrowing so much from a comic-book aesthetic these days, not least because it suits my style, but I feel like a great deal of the anime-influenced stuff is just painfully derivative. I also think that there's a little bit too much digital going on - it can be fantastic when used properly, and definitely makes things like animation much more accessible for your average broke artist, but it's still overused.

What are your future aspirations? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

My dream job would probably be as a concept artist for a video game company. I am obsessed with video games and I love sketching more than creating finished pieces. I also love telling stories and am a big fan of escapism. I'd like to be able to work freelance in 5 years - right now I'm a little too intimidated by not having a steady paycheck to do that, but it's always the dream.

Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

Oh, lots. Books, video games, photography, languages, travel, nature, politics, music, technology, pretty much everything interests me in one way or another.

Any advice for other aspiring artists?

Don't draw from photographs unless you can help it, draw from life; don't worry about your "style", just draw as best as you can and it can't not develop; try and push yourself outside your comfort zone as often as you can; and always learn the traditional tools before you learn the digital ones - if you can't draw it with a pen, don't bother trying to draw it with a wacom.

Any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Nothing except maybe thanks for interviewing me!

To see more works by Rachel you can visit these links:

http://www.rachelem-illo.com - Main portfolio page
http://subeo.deviantart.com/ - deviantART site

News: R.I.P. Mike Wieringo

2007-08-14T01:08:00.000-04:00

As some of you may now know, Newsrama reported that comic book artist, Mike Wieringo passed away at his North Carolina home yesterday of an apparent heart attack at age 44. He gained critical attention working on DC Comics’ The Flash and later went on to produce other works such as Sensational Spider-Man and the Adventures of Superman. He was a source of inspiration to others and will be missed by many.

Click Here to read the full news story…

Artist Profile: Der-shing Helmer

2007-08-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

Der-shing Helmer, known to many as Alexds1 is a recent graduate of UC Berkley who currently resides in the Bay Area. Though she studied biology, specializing in the systematics of reptiles and amphibians, there’s no doubt in mind that deep down inside Der-shing is comic book artist at heart. Her work has a unique flavor and a style that’s all her own, chock full of vibrant in your face poses. At the moment, this 22 year-old biologist is working on two projects: A cutesy story about cats called Snowball in Hell and a Sci-fi/Fantasy epic. Here’s hoping she’ll get published someday so we can all buy her wonderful work.

How long have you been drawing?

I’ve been drawing since elementary school. Once harder school started I realized I could zone out in class by doodling, so I got in a lot of practice all those years!

What was it that made you want to pursue art, even as a hobby?

Spite! Haha, there was this girl in my 3rd grade class that drew dogs really well, and it pissed me off because she'd show them off all over the place. So I tried drawing to get her to shut up... happy ending, I had an art class with her again in 7th grade and I was
better. Inspiring story, isn't it?

Who are your main influences?

When I first started drawing the only art style I had readily available was Sunday cartoons in the newspaper, since I wasn't allowed to watch much TV. Later I got into anime and it was pretty much downhill from there until I graduated from high school. I've been working really hard over the last few years to break away from the anime influence, mostly by looking at other art on the internet and slowly assimilating the bits I liked into my own style. So to answer the question, nobody in particular, the artists most inspiring to me at the moment are Johane Matte and Aysha Shehim.

How would you describe your own style?

Cartoony. I love drawing wild expressions and dynamic poses, I have a unnatural drive to make everything as eye-catching as possible!

How do you come up with ideas for your comics and artwork?

My original works and comics are all taken from my life or interests one way or another. Its fun to take a random boring subject I'm interested in, like fermentation or ecological succession, and morph it into something that a layperson would (potentially) enjoy.

Can you describe your technical approach to creating a picture?

Sure... For a nice quality picture, I start off with a colored pencil sketch, because it looks cooler. Then I go over with regular pencil and transfer it to nicer paper if necessary for inking with Microns/ Pitt pens. Next, follows up with scanning into the computer for corrections and colors. Up until recently all my colors were done with a mouse, something that people don't necessarily expect. Lately though I've been trying out digital inking and coloring with a tablet, which is progressing slowly.

What programs do you often use?

I can't live without Photoshop anymore, thankfully my friend ganked a copy of CS2 for me. C:

What traditional media do you like to work with?

Definitely need my mechanical pencil, I've trained myself to achieve a lot with it including shading effects, but outside that I dabble with acrylics here and there, since they're so forgiving. It’s been invaluable to physically paint, it puts a new perspective on digital painting, at least for me.

How's your work environment?

Messy! I don't use a lot of fancy equipment, just my desk with a bunch of junk on it. For a "lightbox" I've got a piece of plexiglass and a lamp that I invert *haha* and of course a bevy of pencils and pens, my weirdo triangular ruler and a brush to get all the eraser shavings on the carpet where they belong. Pretty normal I guess.

What are your future aspirations?

Of course I'd like to take my art somewhere, the goal is to one day get published for real instead of making minis on my free time, but who knows? In the meantime I'm focusing on getting my masters, and possibly teaching biology one day.

Well you’re very talented, so what's your reason for not primarily pursuing anything art related as a career?

Thanks, as much as I love art, I start feeling claustrophobic as soon as I have to do something that someone else tells me to do. Doing art as a side project on my free time is so much nicer, and learning it on my own is both rewarding and satisfying. And, honestly, art as a career seems really cutthroat, and I like being able to fall back on my 'real' education (however boring).

What interests do you have besides drawing?

Various and sundry... I read a bunch of junk; I love herping (catching reptiles and amphibians), hiking and backpacking, that sort of stuff. Most of the time, I'm really boring.

Give a list of your 5 top favorite books.

Ooh, that’s hard. In no particular order:

- Into the Brazilian Wilderness by Teddy Roosevelt
- Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin (lets pretend it’s one big book)
- Enough Rope by Lawrence Block
- The Wastelands by Stephen King
- Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

If you could meet anyone real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Sherlock Holmes! Because he kicks major ass, I should probably say something more profound but I can't think of anything...

If you could go back in time and change something in your life, what would it be?

I'd have eaten more vegetables. But seriously, I'd have studied harder in college. It makes the future a lot smoother.

Do you have any general advice for people out there?

Be happy? How general are we talking about? *Haha*, but art wise, draw everything. Really, just sit down and draw random things, draw people walking around, draw
dog poop, whatever... don't stop sketching and eventually you'll get to the point where people will want to give you an Internet interview.

Any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Yes. Embrace criticism, both in your real life and in regards to art. Realizing how crappy you are at everything is, in my humble opinion, the first step in becoming the best you can be. Sure it sucks at first but after a while it’s sort of enjoyable to hone in on and zap away your problem areas, if you don't claw your face off first… Good luck with that!

To see more work by Der-shing you can visit these sites:

alexds1@deviantART – deviantART site
alexds3@livejournal.com – Sketch comic and Sketch Journal

You can also email her at alexds1[at]yahoo.com

Wishlist: Bliss Express

2007-08-11T02:30:00.000-04:00

There are plenty of wonderful artbooks out there, too many to count and not enough money to buy them all. However, currently on the Rococo Flow wish list is the book Bliss Express: Illustrating Happiness released by Guu Press earlier this year. Featuring artists such as Bengal, Emma Sky, Rain, Joysuke Wong, and Marcos Chin, it’s surely a must have for the art enthusiast.

21 of today’s most striking pop artists explore the idea of happiness. From Japan and Korea to China, France and North America, they evoke fashion, rock ’n’ roll, nature, graffiti, movies, money, sex and Sunday morning cartoons in tackling a universal question.

Bringing together vignettes, snatches of conversation, artist biographies and over 280 images, Bliss Express paints the normalities and absurdities of modern life. It is a reel of snapshots of the artists’ visions and obsessions—their unhinged, funny, heartbreaking journey to that elusive inner state of grace.

With essays by Mark Kingwell, philosopher and bestselling author of Better Living: In Pursuit of Happiness from Plato to Prozac, and by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, founders and editors of Giant Robot Magazine. (Source)

Plus, for $26.37 (and free shipping!) on Amazon.com, that may not be too much for some of you.

Artist Profile: licchan

2007-08-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

Licchan is one of those few artists whose works have the ability to make people laugh out loud. When looking at the majority of her pieces, there is always some connection with the audience. So much so, that you can easily feel sad, frustrated, and happy right along with the characters. Licchan, who’s from Chicago, Illinois, has been drawing her whole life, triggered by the desire to create stories and finding the best ways to tell them. She currently attends The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is pursuing a degree in Film, Video and New Media.

Rococo Flow: Who would you consider your influences?

licchan: MANY! Mostly other artists, oh man, I don’t even know where to start. I guess actually my very first influences was Miyazaki, Disney and Pokémon. More recently though, Kazuya Minekura, Josh Middleton, Daniel Ross, Sumomo Yumeka and my best friend fresh4u on dA.

Rococo Flow: How would you describe your own style?

licchan: That’s a good question. I guess maybe, comic book-ish with a hint of anime? (Which I sometimes wish I didn’t have). I guess my style is kind of cliché and boring, kind of static. (I wish I could draw more dynamic things). I focus a lot on people and expressions.

Rococo Flow: How come you wish you didn't have the anime?

licchan: I suppose I hate the connotation it has now. Recently anime is getting a bad reputation in America and I’d really rather not be associated with that. I would just flat out PREFER a more realistic style.

Rococo Flow: Since you go to an art school, do you ever find students judged against if their artwork shows any bit of anime or manga style? I'm just wondering because even in my dinky high school art class, the teacher was really against anyone who drew like that.

licchan: YES. Very much so and just anime style, comic book style in general is high looked down upon in my school. I have so many stories. Want to hear one? *laughs*

Rococo Flow: Sure. =]

licchan: Well in a nutshell, I had this drawing of one of my characters as a finished project for a class. The teacher had always considered my style “comic book-ish” and “graphic design-y”, which she DIDN’T like. The drawing I did, had a lot of graphic design elements, (it was even done on the computer). The teacher was going around and critiquing everyone’s finished work, however when she got to mine, she stopped, looked at it and basically said: “This isn’t art, I can’t critique this” and walked away. So yes, those styles get judged very harshly at my school sometimes.

Rococo Flow: Oh my gosh. Wow.

licchan: I did have one teacher that liked comics, so that was a nice change, but as a whole, students and teachers dislike it.

Rococo Flow: It doesn't sound too different from the art schools of the past. They push what they believe to be 'art'. So I'm guessing that they sort of push the 'fine arts' as opposed to schools like SCAD where you can learn sequential art?

licchan: Yeah, they do. Although SAIC does have an animation program, which I’m in right now. They also have a couple of comic book classes popping up. We’re hoping to get more.

Rococo Flow: Sound good. How do you get ideas for your artwork? Are you ever trying to convey a message or standpoint?

licchan: My ideas come mostly from the characters and stories I make up – just scenes and quick things that run through my head. Music helps that a lot and usually I’m just trying to convey a mood, an emotion or some part of a storyline.

Rococo Flow: Can you describe your technical approach to creating a picture?

licchan: Ah well most of my drawings are just pencil doodles, nothing fancy. I just get a really quick glimpse of something in my mind and jot it down as a sketch. Then sometimes it turns out to be something more, which is always cool! *Haha*. I’ll just scan the sketch in and slap some colour on. When I’m trying to draw something more planned though, I tend to use references. So I’ll work off a photo usually, do a sketch in Open Canvas, and then go over the sketch with clean lines. Then I’ll either toss it into Photoshop to slap some flat colour on or I’ll colour it more realistically in Open Canvas.

Rococo Flow: What's your work environment like? Messy? Clean?

licchan: Eh, well I work in my room, usually on the computer. My computer desktop is usually not messy, but the rest of my room and other surfaces are, so when I work traditionally I'm more in the mess.

Rococo Flow: Hehe, well if you ever find yourself suffering from art block, how do you work through it?

licchan: I DON’T. *Haha*. Seriously, I'm in an art block right now and have been for months. This is the longest, worst art block I think I have ever had. I don’t really know how I worked out of art blocks before this. I guess one day I just forced myself to draw again. I think I drew stuff that I was familiar with (i.e. characters I draw a lot, simple poses) until I got into the swing of things again. I’ve got to try that right now and get back into it.*laughs*

Rococo Flow: Speaking of characters you draw a lot, care to talk about your character Gavan?

licchan: Umm, what do you want to know?!

Rococo Flow: How did you come up with him? What’s his background? Is he part of a story you have going?

licchan: Well I came up with him because my friend fresh4u and I decided we wanted to kind of make a story together. She came up with Caine and I came up with Gavan. I don’t know how I came up with him really. I think I really just wanted to make a character very different than any I’d had before. His background is very long and involved and intertwined with Caine’s, but in a tiny, tiny nutshell he was forced into the CIA and has been working there his whole life and Caine is his partner.

Rococo Flow: Do you guys plan to ever release a comic or something involving this story?

licchan: Oh, I would love to! But that’s quite a while away from happening, especially because we're still creating parts of the story now. I do want to do a few comic shorts in the near future though!

Rococo Flow: That would be awesome. Well you mentioned that you use Photoshop and Open Canvas. Are there any other programs you use?

licchan: Oekaki is fun and also paintchat and MS Paint! (Okay, no). I use Open Canvas the most often, followed closely by Photoshop. I use Painter 6 for inking sometimes. I love the ink tools in that program.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any favorite traditional media?

licchan: Pencil, coloured pencils, and sometimes marker. I love inks but I’m not good at them. I pretty much hate every other media.

Rococo Flow: So you're studying animation. Do you have any thoughts on the animation industry today?

licchan: It needs to get more 2D and less 3D, in America anyway. Although I do love Pixar, I must admit.

Rococo Flow: I don't think they've explored all the avenues and things that are possible with it.

licchan: Yeah, we need to learn from other countries what its capable of, like France, Korea, and Japan, even Russia! They have some amazing 2D animated work.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any future goals?

licchan: I don’t have many. All my goals are pretty…out there. Too far for me to ever reach, so I try not to think about them. My main goal is just to be happy. My unreachable goals would be to make a series out of the Gavan and Caine stories, a comic book or an animated, possibly live action movie. I would also like to create movies out of my other stories and be an animation/movie director.

Rococo Flow: I think that's the least most of us can ever hope for =]. Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

licchan: I love computers, video games, music, the internet…I also love driving! Oh and movies. I love movies.

Rococo Flow: If you could meet anyone real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

licchan: George Washington. You can’t go wrong with Washington. He has a pocket full of horses and saves the children (but not the British children). It would be a sweet deal to meet an amazing leader like him, though Lincoln was pretty badass too.

Rococo Flow: What one food could you not live without?

licchan: UM... POPTARTS I just ate some as a matter of fact.

Rococo Flow: Haha. How about music? Is there any particular band or genre, etc. that you listen to when working on something?

licchan: I literally listen to EVERYTHING. I love all genres, tons of bands. The band/genre I listen to while drawing just depends on the mood I’m in at the time, really.

Rococo Flow: Who are you particularly fond of at the moment?

licchan: Augh, that’s so hard. I’ve kind of been in a soft rock mood lately, not sure what particular band I’ve been listening too, though. As a whole, a few of my top all time favorites are Muse, The Rasmus, and Jump Little Children.

Rococo Flow: Do you have any advice for other aspiring artists?

licchan: Love what you do and have fun doing it. That’s the most important thing~ <3>

To see more work by licchan you can visit the following links:

http://licchan.deviantart.com/ - deviantART gallery
http://community.livejournal.com/starberry_ick/ - Sketch journal

You can also email her at watarurules[at]hotmail.com

Artist Profile: Carolyn Gan

2007-08-08T11:56:00.000-04:00

Carolyn Gan who goes by the alias Wredwrat online, is a 22 year old artist who is originally from Malaysia, but has been residing in Perth, Western Australia for the last 12 years. In 2004, she graduated from Curtin University with a BA in Multimedia Design and has since been working on perfecting her craft in both illustration and comics. Looking at her work, it’s hard to believe that she’s mostly self taught and has only seriously pursued art since graduating. Many of her pieces seem to perfectly grasp moments in time and make you wonder of the story behind the characters. In 2007 Carolyn and her creative partner Amei were the Grand Prize winners of the Comikaze24, an Australian 24 hour comic challenge with their entry "Home is where she is". When not busy with comics, Carolyn has 6 pets rats named Bubbles, Bearbear, Milton, Dunlop, Caesar, and Norris whom she takes of at home.

How long have you been drawing?

I started drawing when I was in primary school, but only started taking it more seriously after I finished uni in 2004. My first foray into digital painting was 2002.

How did you get interested in art?

I moved schools a lot when I was young, and drawing was a hobby which I could enjoy by myself so things just kept going from there. The internet made my drive greater, as I could share my work with like-minded people and get exposed to other styles of art and to artists of all calibres. Meeting other artists and mentors during my high school years made me discover this is what I wanted to be.

Who are your influences?

There are very many artists out there whom I love, here are my mainstays:

For sequential work, Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy is my biggest influence for storytelling and mood. Also, French artist Claire Wendling's comics, and Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal).

For illustrations, my biggest loves are Katsuya Terada with his painterly style and deviant subject matter; and Range Murata's perfect rendering skills and retro styled designs. Lately I've also discovered Kazuma Kaneko, and I feel that we shall definitely have a close and long-lasting relationship as well *haha*.

My other favourite artists are:
(Western): The Black Frog, Jason Chan, Jo Chen, Anry, Arnold Tsang, Jon Foster, James Gurney, Scott Gustafson, Norman Rockwell, Shaun Tan

(Eastern): Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Imperial Boy, Aki Shimizu, Akihiro Yamada, Kuroboshi Kouhaku, Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka, Tsuyoshi Nagano, Oga Kazuo

(Classical): Caravaggio, Bougeureau, Renoir, Monet, Joseph Clement Coll.

How would you describe your style?

It’s still developing like a patchwork quilt, a collective of all the styles I love that are spread across all genres. But at a glance I guess it's very heavy and rigid.

How do you get ideas for your drawings/paintings?

I get most of my ideas from leafing through my collection of artbooks and reference books. I also go through the works of my favourite artists to see what sort of stuff makes them tick, and I get ideas that way. I'm fond of pictures that tell a small story in itself, especially slice-of-life scenes. So movies really help a lot too, my favourite kinds are westerns, fantasy, war, and historical themes.

What programs do you primarily use for your artwork?

For comics - Mangastudio EX
For paintings - Painter IX and Photoshop 6. I use a 6x8 Wacom Intuos 2 tablet.

Can you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

I start off by looking for reference material to build up on the basic idea I have. I google up pictures or go through books. Once I've collected enough of what I'm looking for, I fill the canvas with the base colour I want to work with, and then start blacking in the basic composition and figures in silhouettes. I work this way because it's easier for me to see in form than in lines. Then I figure out my light source and work out the shadows. After that it is just adding more colours and fleshing out the details. I use the same silhouette technique for some panels in my comics as well, particularly the biggest/most important panels.

Could you talk a bit about some of your past, current, and future comic projects?

The first comic project I started is my Kino No Tabi fancomic from last year. It's essentially a survival story, one person versus the elements, that kind of thing. So far I'm 34 pages into it and it's still ongoing. I tend to come back and make pages for it when I'm feeling in the mood. I started it as practice after the style of Mignola and I was enjoying it a lot so I kept going. The only problem is I don't know how I'm going to end it, so it seems I'm still rambling on forever…

Other comics I've made are just short ones that range from 2 to 8 pagers, some being fanwork and some original. I have also participated in the Australian 24-hour comic challenge for a couple of years, with both times working in a two-man team with my fellow artist Amei. Our entry this year can be found here.At the moment I am working on another fancomic, this time in the vein of romantic highschool love. I find it exciting dabbling in different genres as I'm still deciding what I like best. Future comic projects I have planned are more original work involving post-apocalyptic war and steampunk themes.

What are your thoughts on the comic industry right now? There's been a surge of Eastern influences, while you still have the traditional superheroes with capes.

Hmm I'm probably not too in tune with what's out there, but I think more attention is being paid to indy comics these days, there are very many varied styles out there which have gained acceptance in mainstream circles. Manga has always been popular, but I didn't realise how much until I visited my local comics shop yesterday. There's so much more imported manga these days that it's taking up more shelf space than the traditional western superhero work! What I'd love to see is more European comics being translated and made available too. :D

What are your future aspirations?

My long term goal is to get better and faster at what I'm doing and hopefully be able to make a better living out of it. I'd like to get in the field of concept design, as I find I rather enjoy working out details and designing things that are part of a bigger whole. I would also keep drawing comics.

Do you have any other interests besides drawing?

Obsessively collecting books which I only have time to quickly flip through.

Any advice for other aspiring artists?

Keep working hard and be observant of all things around you. Stay focused, give everything a go, and try something new in each picture you draw.

Visit the following sites to see more work by Carolyn:

http://wredwrat.deviantart.com – deviantART gallery
http://wratbox.com - Online portfolio
Sketchbook@Conceptart.org

You can also email Carolyn at studio.wrat[at]gmail.com

Artist Profile: Joanna Estep

2007-08-07T01:46:00.000-04:00

I considered myself extremely lucky when Joanna Estep agreed to interview for Rococo Flow. The fact that she isn’t too fond of interviews and gave me a sneak peak of Roadsong 3 makes me even more grateful. Best known as the artist and co-creator for the Tokyopop series Roadsong, she is also the co-founder of Milktooth Press. On top of that, she also wrote the textbook Timing: Expressions of Time in Sequential Art and Design, which received the Charles Logan Smith Award for excellence in design. Now for the reason why I love her work: Joanna has such a great combination of style and color. Not to mention, her ink work is to die for. Born on February 18, 1981, Joanna is from Dayton, Ohio and got her start in comics by drawing short stories for various anthologies. When she’s not working on a project, she’s simply a girl who loves movies, writing, role-playing, camping, and going for drives.

Rococo Flow: So how long have you been drawing? Did you go to an art school?

Joanna: Well, I'm pretty sure that I decided to be an artist, back when I was in elementary school. You know, that whole "Mommy I'm going be an artist when I grow up!" sort of thing. It wasn't until much later, (high school) that I figured out exactly what sort of artist I wanted to be. When the comics bug bit, it bit hard and a lot of my friends were drawing comics too, so we all encouraged each other. I did indeed go to art school (Ohio University), though I decided I needed a practical plan B, if comics didn't pan out as a valid career option. So I majored in graphic design, which I now understand to have been the right choice for me.

Rococo Flow: Why is that? Did the things you learned in graphic design help with the comic layouts and such?

Joanna: It helped in several different ways, I think. The most obvious being that I learned to work with a lot of different design software, and also about the printing process, and how to get the best output for what you're printing; color, black and white, or otherwise. That's helped a lot, because most of the comics I draw end up in print.

Layouts are another big thing. You have to have an eye for that stuff, and it can take a long time to develop that "eye". I'd say that the number one way to tell an experienced comic artist from an inexperienced one is to look at the layouts, and they way they design their page. It can take a very long time, to cultivate good instincts for that, and design school definitely helped me with that.

Rococo Flow: So as you've learned and become better at your craft, who have been your influences?

Joanna: Good question! I always struggle with this one. I think I have more artists/comickers who inspire me, rather than influence me. Some of the first comics I read were things like Jeff Smith's Bone or Moto Hagio's A,A or Elfquest, even.

As for the more direct influences, I grew up being friends and acquaintances with a lot of other comic artists. I went to high school with the artists Traci Spencer, Robin Edwards, and also Leia Weathington. (All three of whom now make web comics of growing renown.) I was also distantly acquainted with the creative collective Estrigious, and consequently drew a great deal of influence from them as well.

Nowadays, I'm hugely influenced by my peers at Tokyopop, and Insight Studios Group. Mark Wheatley, (Head honcho of Insight) has been a huge help and inspiration to me. He's like my comics dad.

Rococo Flow: How would describe your own style?

Joanna: Hmmm, now there's another tough one. I like to draw in a lot of different styles, actually. People tell me that my stuff is recognizable no matter what I'm doing, but I sometimes worry that I'm too experimental for my own good. Most of the comics I've drawn so far have been pretty light-hearted, so when I'm comicking I draw with a style that I hope comes across as humorous, expressive, and full of movement. (It’s to the point where I often get asked if I work in animation.)

However, I not-so-secretly hope to draw darker stories someday, so a lot of the sketching and illustration I do on my own time comes across as grim and heavy-handed, and with copious amounts of India ink.

That's probably not the answer you were looking for, but it’s pretty hard to classify myself.

Rococo Flow: That’s quite alright. I thought it would be hard for most people, however I wanted to give artists a chance to classify themselves. So when working on a story or any artwork, how do you get ideas?

Joanna: Lately, I feel like the question should be: "How do I not get ideas?" Loads of things inspire me, and I sort of end up with this mental checklist of things I'd like to draw and/or write. I try to get to them all in a timely fashion, but sometimes it's all work and no play, so I have to let some ideas go.

But if I'm aiming to start a more serious project, I'll just think to myself: "Hmmm, what are some things I like to draw, and how can I write them all into a story together?" Things always seem to just snowball, from there. When I'm doing a big comic project, it's always a safe bet to include things that I enjoy drawing, because I'll have to draw them over and over and over...

Rococo Flow: Could you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

Joanna: I throw some ink on a page and scribble it around!!... Okay not really, thought it feels like that some days. If it's comics, I generally start by sketching a rough layout at print size. Then I scan the layout into my computer and resize it to match the larger board that I'll be drawing on. After that, I use my lightbox to trace the layout onto the board, and to tighten up the pencils as I go. It feels tedious sometimes, but I find that it preserves the gesture and energy of my initial layouts. If it's not a comic then anything goes. Sometimes I do the resize-and-trace method, sometimes not. It depends on the illustration.

Rococo Flow: What programs do you primarily use for your comics and your illustration work?

Joanna: Eh, these days it's mostly Photoshop. I used to use InDesign for lettering and book layout, but it's since become easy to do those things in Photoshop too.

Rococo Flow: True, Photoshop has sort of become an industry standard. When it comes to traditional media, what's your favorite? (I'm particularly fond of your ink work).

Joanna: Ink, ink, ink, ink, and more ink. I love to sling ink around, and I buy lots of different inking tools just to try them out. I don’t know, I think that stark black and white images and confident brush strokes are just exceptionally beautiful. I know some artists ink digitally, but I love the hands-on stuff.

Rococo Flow: So is inking your favorite part of the creating process?

Joanna: I think so. For me, the two most exciting moments in making comics, is when I finish a layout, or finish inking a page. Those are the times when I can see/imagine what the page is going to look like when it's complete, so yeah, I guess you could say it's my favorite part.

Rococo Flow: What's your least favorite part then?

Joanna: Scanning stuff in and tracing layouts back onto the board. I do it a lot and it gets pretty tedious. I'm not crazy about penciling, either. I don't usually like the way my pencils look.

Rococo Flow: I thought it was the reverse for most people. That they wish their inks looked as good as their pencils.

Joanna: Really? I haven't heard that one in a long time.

Rococo Flow: Hmm, maybe it's just me, but then again, I would think it depends on the kind of work you do. I've seen some people who paint straight onto a sketch, but that's illustration. For comics you need to be able to ink (or have someone do it for you).

Joanna: Not always! Inking is not really a requirement to make sequential art. Some artists paint. Some just color on their pencils. Some just pencil and don't even bother with inks. Inking is common, but it's not the only way to make good comics.

Rococo Flow: True, I see your point. In regards to comics then, how'd you get involved with working for Tokyopop?

Joanna: There's sort of a long and winding answer to that one, actually. I was in the habit of taking my portfolio to comic conventions so that I could get feedback and advice from the working professionals. At the time, I was getting interested in self-publishing, but I happened to meet Mark Wheatley of Insight Studios and he seemed to really like my work. He put me in touch with Allan Gross (writer of Roadsong) and we started a comic that we initially intended to publish in Triathlete Magazine. That project soon fell through, but Al had a few contacts at Tokyopop and he was able to get us a gig making manga. The rest is history.

Rococo Flow: How does the creative process work for the graphic novel Roadsong, since you work with a writer?

Joanna: It's pretty simple, really, and it involves a lot of trading around of the script. Al and I usually discuss the general concepts and direction of the story before or during the writing of the script. Then when it's written he'll send it to me, and to our editor. I used to offer more feedback to the script at this point, but our editor is pretty trustworthy, and she usually says everything that I want to say, anyway.

In any case, when we've settled on a script, I make the page layouts for the book, and send those off to be edited, too. After that, I'm free to draw! And it isn't until the artwork for the book is finished that Al goes back to include what he calls the "lettering script". That's when he tweaks and modifies the dialogue to (hopefully) better suit the art.

Rococo Flow: It sounds like you're a very busy person. What's your work environment like? Can you describe the life of a comic book artist? Especially for those who seriously want to get into the business.

Joanna: You know, I always wonder if people have this image of comic artists as having this exciting and glamorous lifestyle. I mean, it's really just me sitting around in my pajamas all day, chained to the art desk. Very boring…Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration, but it's not too far from the truth. I have a cozy office that I use for art-making and storing reference material and supplies. Sometimes I like a change of scenery though, so I'll go draw at a coffee shop, or a friend's house. I live right by webcomic artist Traci Spencer, so the two of us work on comics together a lot.

Rococo Flow: Well you seem to like it well enough. Do you have any other projects in the works? Maybe one in which you work as both writer and artist?

Joanna: I do indeed! I'm on the verge of selling a proposal for a new story, and I'm very excited to be able to write again! I don't want to say too much about it at this point, but it's an "Oliver Twist" meets "Multiplicity" sort of story. (I laugh every time I say that, but it's pretty true.) I look forward to starting work on it in earnest.

Rococo Flow: Sounds exciting can’t wait.

Joanna: It's a long ways off, yet. I'm still working on Roadsong 3. :-)

Rococo Flow: I guess people will just have to be patient then. I also wanted to know about your thoughts on the comic industry? With the boom of manga and Eastern influenced comics, there seems to be a lot more females who are being recognized in the industry.

Joanna: Ergh, I hardly feel like an expert on the state of the industry. There are a lot of things I like, but there's still a lot to complain about, too. So rather than open that particular can of worms, I might just say that I'm mostly glad for the recent surge in the production of western manga, and manga influenced comics. There are a lot of girls who like to draw manga, and are really excellent at it too. I'm glad that this recent trend has allowed them the chance to share their work with a wider audience.

Rococo Flow: So what are your own goals for the future?

Joanna: Hah. When I was last asked about my hopes and dreams, I replied by saying "financial stability." It's still pretty true. I love making comics, and it's great to have a career in the industry, but it can take awhile to get to the point where you're living comfortably on it. I still take second jobs, sometimes.

Rococo Flow: I see, I guess the thought of a glamorous life that other people think of, are thoughts of automatically getting a hit cartoon/anime made just because you work on a project. However, I like to believe that the industry is still growing and it'll become a lot better for many artists like you.

Joanna: I certainly hope so. I'm part of this recent boom of graphic novels over single-issue comics, so I feel like I'm just one of many guinea pigs, in this whole endeavor. I think things will even out eventually, but things are still a little rocky. It can be hard to hold onto an audience for a graphic novel series, when you can only produce one book a year. Speaking from experience, I wonder if maybe creators who are drawing entire books at a time are more likely to suffer from exhaustion and burnout, too. As for cartoons and anime though? Just love your comic for what it is. I dislike it when comics are treated as stepping stones to TV and movies. Comics are fantastic, all on their own!

Rococo Flow: Your comment about burnout is interesting because I think some people fail to realize that most times 'OEL manga' or whatever they want to call it is usually done by one person when it comes to the art. While a lot of Japanese creators have a lot of assistants who can help with the other stuff.

Joanna: Right. The American comics industry doesn't easily lend itself to that sort of thing. At the moment it's just me, myself, and I. But that isn't to say that American comic artists can't or don't have assistants. Some of my friends do, and I'm also thinking of looking for an assistant if I get into a situation where I'm drawing more than one book at once.

Rococo Flow: Sounds, like it would at least lessen some of the burden. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?

Joanna: Certainly. Make a lot of comics! Some of the most talented artists I know obsessively draw and make comics all the time, because they love it so much. No one can teach you more than you can teach yourself. When you've got that part down, I suggest taking your portfolio to comic conventions, and getting further advice from professionals. If you want to work in comics, networking with others in the industry is just as important as the drawing of said comics.

So go! Be free! Make art! Make friends!...or move to Ohio and become my assistant. ;-)

Rococo Flow: *laughs* Fun Question: If you could be any character from a video game, movie, or novel, etc. who would it be?

Joanna: Oh my god. Too hard, there are just so many choices... However, off the top of my head, I think I might like to be San, from Princess Mononoke or maybe Mowgli, from the jungle book? It's sort of a strange and irrational fantasy of mine to be a raised-by-wolves naked jungle girl. It probably wouldn't be much fun in practice, but I like to daydream about it.

Rococo Flow: I think I've asked that question in most of the interviews, but I always get interesting answers. (I can't help it!) Mowgli is awesome (at least in the Disney version).

Joanna: Hee! I just love jungles and forests. It'd be so neat to live in the middle of one, but probably very dangerous. I'd likely get eaten.

Rococo Flow: *laughs* I think those are all the questions I've got. Do you have any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Joanna: Mm, not that I can think of at the moment. That was a pretty exhaustive interview.

Rococo Flow: Thank you!! I really appreciate your time.

Joanna: No problem. Don't be a stranger!

To see more work by Joanna visit these links:

http://www.joannaestep.com/ - Main website
http://jou.livejournal.com/ - Her blog
http://milktoothpress.com/ - Milktooth Press

Roadsong:
Roadsong 1
Roadsong 2

Newsarama articles on timing:
Timing 1
Timing 2
Timing 3

You can also email Joanna at joanna.estep@gmail.com

Artist Profile: Brinson Marie Thieme

2007-08-04T22:30:00.001-04:00

When asked to give a brief summary about herself, Brinson Marie Thieme, better known as Sairobi thinks of herself as “fairly boring”. “I’ve never climbed any mountains, I don’t know ju-jitsu, and I certainly don’t have any magical powers. (Yet).” She says. However, this artist 24 year-old artist who is originally from Sarasota, Fl definitely has some skills. Currently residing in Van Nuys, CA with her sister and three cats, she looks for jobs during the day and finds time to draw at night. Take a glance at any of her works, with characters adorned in mesmerizing outfits and soon you’ll be begging to see more. She received her BA from the University of South Florida in 2004, along with a MFA in Sequential Art from SCAD in 2006. Her eye for perfectly matching character and costume designs, will easily take you to another world.

How long have you been drawing?

Like most artists, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. But I wasn't really serious about it until I was around eighteen.

What was it that got you interested?

This is going to sound so ridiculous but … Final Fantasy VII. It came out when I was thirteen or fourteen and I was so determined to work on my drawing after watching the cinematics in it.

Who are your influences?

Hiroaki Samura, Pierre Alary, Mike Mignola, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Alphonse Mucha – all the usual suspects.

How would you describe your own style?

Oh man! That's hard. At the moment, I'm sort of experiencing an existential style crisis. I can't really decide if I want to be a digital painter a la all those great artists at ConceptArt.org, or draw silly little cartoons.

How do you get ideas for your drawings and paintings?

Reading, mostly. Sometimes I just want to illustrate a scene from a story. Most of the time, though, the ideas are tangential to the content – I'll be reading Greek mythology, and think "Satyrs, huh? wonder what they would look like in modern clothes. Hmmm."

Can you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

I start with the face. I've been told this is a cardinal sin in most art classrooms– OH WELL. I need a face because I want to know what the dominant emotion is for my picture. Once I have one I can start thinking about things like how the color scheme and body language relates to the feeling I'm trying to create. From there I work outward, as my understanding of proportions is all based upon relationships to the face. It's very organic.

Are there any messages that you try convey with your pictures?

I just want to entertain people. I want my pictures to contain narratives and lively characters people are interested in … but beyond that, I really don't attempt to convey any big ideas. I'll be the first to admit it: My work is pretty shallow.

What's your work environment like?

Messy like the dickens. For a big project, my work area (which can be my drafting desk, bed, or computer) begins to resemble a nest. My tools and my iPod are usually at the center, then layers of printed references and junk sketches and books are scattered about in a three-foot radius.

Anytime you feel like you're in a funk, what gets you motivated to start drawing again?

Usually experiencing something very visual helps give me a kick in the butt, whether it's a new movie or just a particularly well-done comic.

What programs do you primarily use for your artwork?

Photoshop 7.

What's your favorite traditional media?

Graphite. I am utterly addicted to pencils. And I just discovered powdered graphite! It's fantastic.

What are your future aspirations?

In an ideal world -- a world of peace, love and unicorns! -- I will be a successful conceptual designer for a major video game studio. But I'll settle for drawing every day and receiving enough compensation for that to pay my bills.

Any advice for other aspiring artists?

Don't go to art school because you want a job. Go because you want an education.

If you could be any character from a video game, movie, novel, etc. who would it be?

Stephen Maturin from the Master and Commander series. That would make me: A doctor and a spy and an amateur biologist, not to mention handy with pistols. I would be a true nineteenth century badass.

What's the one thing you could not live without?

Fountain Coca-Cola. McDonald's is running a promotion where you can get a 64 oz. drink for 75 cents. I've never been happier.

Any other comments or things you'd like to address?

I'm good, thanks. :)

To see more work by Brinson, you can visit these links:

http://sairobi.deviantart.com – deviantART gallery
http://www.sourho.net – Portfolio site
http://sairobi.livejournal.com – Online journal

You can also send emails to Brinson at tetmonk@aol.com

Artist Profile: Kristina Gehrmann

2007-08-03T00:11:00.004-04:00

I remember when I first stumbled across the gallery of Kristina Gehrmann. After taking a women’s art history course over the summer, I had a newfound appreciation for the classics. Upon seeing Kristina’s work, I was awestruck by the lighting and composition she managed to pull off in her pieces. Known as Maidith online, Kristina was born in Leverkusen, Germany on May 12, 1989. She currently resides in Meerbusch, Germany and is getting ready to take her A-level exams in 2008. Her artwork is reminiscent of the great Baroque painters such as Rembrandt and Artemisia Gentileschi. Kristina shows great understanding of different techniques and style and certainly has the potential to become one of the great ‘classic’ painters of our time.

How long have you been drawing?

I’ve been doodling since I could hold a pencil and simply love doing it. Since then, I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different media and I’m still looking for my favorite kind. Though right now, I currently work mainly with my graphics tablet and oil paint. I’ve been doing digital art since 2002.

How did you get interested in art?

I have no idea what exactly got me into art. It was just something fun to do, but also a challenge from the very beginning. I remember trying to copy Disney images closely when I was about 6 years old. I wanted them to look "right", which didn't always work out but I kept drawing anyway. Pictures in general often made me want to be able to draw like the pictures I saw too. When I was very young, I saw an old master painting in a museum, I can't remember how it looked like, but it left me extremely impressed. In general, I could say: I always wanted to be able to draw or paint - pictures proved to me what was possible, so I just had to keep trying. I'm working to improve my techniques and drawing abilities in order to to achieve what I want with a certain work.

Who are your influences?

I would have to say, the paintings of the old masters. They always impress me when I see them in museums. I love how they tell stories or manage to get the character of a person across to the viewer. I also admire their ability to express religious sentiments. Influences for certain pictures can be all kinds of things, such as poems, songs, even a number, or the atmosphere of a European town. The painters who have influenced me would be J.M. William Turner whose paintings I adore and Eugène Delacroix, as well as the Baroque painters.

How would you describe your style?

I'm still looking for one. It’s hard to tell :). But so far, I'd say: Baroque, it’s sometimes colorful and shiny and sometimes dark-ish. I'm still experimenting with everything.

Can you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

I try to imagine the picture first. The better I know in advance what I want to paint, the less frustrating it will be trying to get everything "right". Color and composition are the most important things, so that's what I think about first - they'll determine the mood of the entire piece. Then, when I know what I want, I look for references. One can't get everything to look very convincing when drawing from imagination, especially if you go for realism. If I want to paint figures, I take photos of myself or a friend, and make a line drawing from those. (Sometimes, it also happens that I doodle along and suddenly a picture evolves, and the figure looks promising but not quite right - in that case I have to look for a reference too). I always paint on a colored background. On top of the line drawing, I block in the final colors with all light and shadow, until the picture is - very roughly - already there. Everything else is merely detailing, refining and correcting mistakes.

What programs do you primarily use for you art?

I use Photoshop 7 mostly, sometimes also Painter IX. But my Aiptek HyperPen 12000U graphics tablet is most important to me.

What's your favorite traditional media?

It's oil, I think. I love the smell of oil paints, and the rich, thick texture. I'm also working more with watercolors and colored inks. They can be hard to control but such beautiful colors are possible with transparent layers. The paintings can have a very nice glow.

What are your future aspirations?

I want to be an illustrator for fairy tale books, like Kinuko Y. Craft (who is also one of my idols) or a portrait painter. I'm working on my oil painting skills so I can become good enough for that. I also would love to be an instructor at a traditional art academy (one that focuses on drawing and painting realistically), teaching people who love painting and truly want to learn.

Your work shows that you have a lot of skill in traditional painting. How do you feel about the apparent divide between digital art and those done with traditional media?

Traditional media works are best seen in person, like when they hang in a gallery - on the Internet, they always look different. Digital art, on the contrary, is made on the computer and viewed well online (though it is possible to make really, really good prints from digital paintings). But then again, digital art can also include other areas, not just painting. For instance, photo manipulations, fractals or 3D art which is like sculpting. This is a completely new medium and maybe, some fifty years from now on, we will have books about the history of digital art, just like there are books about the history of watercolor. Who knows? :)

Any advice for other aspiring artists?

Always challenge yourself. It'll help you to become better at what you love to do. Paint what you truly love to paint and copy the artworks you admire, not to imitate the artist but to learn about their technique. Don't worry about your own unique style, it will come, you can't avoid it. Also try to draw a lot from nature, figure drawing classes work wonders. Most of all, paint, sketch and doodle all day long, or at least as often as you can.

If you could meet anyone in the world, alive or dead, who would it be?

Uh oh, good question. I'd probably want to meet all the great artists I admire, and watch them paint, and ask them lots of questions. But if I have to pick one, it'd be Michelangelo. I’m sure, he would be very interesting to talk to, not just because of his artwork but also his era of time, the people he knew, and general gossip :).

Any other comments or things you'd like to address?

Just an advice I can give to all artists out there: Do what you love and push yourself to become good at it. I'm also looking forward to what the future will bring for the art world, especially when it comes to digital painting. We will see =).

To see more works by Kristina you can visit her online galleries at:

http://www.mondhase.de - Homepage
http://maidith.deviantart.com – deviantART account
http://maidith.cgsociety.org
http://maidith.theuntappedsource.com

You can also email Kristina at kristina[at]mondhase.de

Artist Profile: Jayd Aït-Kaci

2007-07-28T22:49:00.000-04:00

Jayd Aït-Kaci better known on the net as Chira-chira didn’t get serious about drawing until she was about 14. Yet, at 20 she’s become pretty popular on sites such as deviantArt and also runs a webcomic, Salad Days with her friend Alex Singer. She currently lives in Vancouver, BC and is planning on attending the University of British Columbia for their Japanese program. The highlight of her artwork includes the fantastic emotion and body language she puts into all the characters she draws.

Rococo Flow: What school do you go to? That is if you go to any particular art school or something of the sort.

Jayd: I'm not going to any schools at the moment. I was attending Vancouver Film School earlier in the year for their animation program, but I resigned after a couple of months. Fantastic school--nothing but good things to say about it, but it was way too intense for someone like me, as I wasn't too serious about following the road of an animator. I'm looking into attending University of British Columbia next, mainly for their Japanese program.

Rococo Flow: Care to give us a brief bio about anything you think may be interesting? Such as your name, how do you pronounce it? (Because I would hate to go around pronouncing it wrong).

Jayd: *laugh* Story all on its own. My family is a very diverse one (we're each born in a different place, it's insane). I was born in Austin, Texas but that just makes me an American by birth. I lived my childhood in Paris, France, and though we eventually migrated over to Canada there's been traveling to many places still.

As for my name, my father is Algerian (his native language being French) and my mother is Venezuelan (her language being Spanish), so they wanted a name that could be pronounced as similar as possible across languages. "Jayd" ended up being a funny spelling of "Jade" for that very purpose. My last name, Aït-Kaci, is a French butchering of an Algerian surname. I forgot what it meant precisely but it's pronounced Ah-eet-kah-see.

Rococo Flow: I guess taking French in school is paying off for me now.

Jayd: I've forgotten a lot of it! Truth is I know more Japanese than I know French right now. I haven't spoken it in years, I still have the accent though.

Rococo Flow: So what got you interested in taking Japanese? Especially since you're looking into that program?

Jayd: I've always been very fascinated by languages, but Japanese came mostly from my interest in anime and manga. I started catching on very early that there's a lot lost in translation when it comes to translating Japanese into English, so when a Japanese course became available to me in high school I immediately jumped on it (I even tried to get into it a year earlier than I could). I completely fell in love with the language and the culture beyond anime because of it. I hope to live in Japan for a few years one day.

Rococo Flow: That’s understandable. You're lucky too, since most people have to wait till college before they even have a chance to take any languages that aren't Spanish, French or German. That said, how long have you been drawing and how did you get interested in art?

Jayd: Well I've always been an artistic person, but truthfully I didn't want to have anything to do with art until I was fourteen. I was kind of in denial. I used to excel at math and sciences for a large portion of my life, until I made a subconscious switch to more humanitarian subjects (it caught me by surprise!). I also aspired to be a writer (again, fascination with languages) because everything else seemed like a better career path than making something of dumb “ah-nee-may” doodles in the margin of papers.

However, when I started discovering the internet and making friends online, I ended up letting out the dirty secret of my little sketches. My best friend at the time encouraged me heavily to develop it. Five years later I've come a long way and I accepted that I wouldn't be satisfied in telling stories in any other medium other than drawing. I don't kid myself in being an artist (I honestly don't think myself as one, it's just easy to tell people I am one), but telling stories through art is what I'd like. It turned out to be a much easier vehicle than writing.

Rococo Flow: So are you thinking of pursuing a career in creating comics or manga as some may call it?

Jayd: Absolutely. I did a small doujinshi two years ago (for Bleach) as my first experimentation in sequential art. While it drove me completely crazy with stress, it gave birth to a love for it. Not even a year later I started a collaborated web comic project with my brilliant friend Alex (aka Moonsheen online) as kind of training wheels for my goal.

Rococo Flow: Excellent, maybe it's just me but it seems like there aren't as many ongoing web comics as there used to be. Perhaps, it's because people have gone on to other things as they get older. You said you did a Bleach doujin, who are some of your influences?

Jayd: Too many to name, and from every corner. But a few: in art, people would be quick to label Kubotite (author of Bleach) as my main idol because there are similarities in my style and his, but honestly he's my idol when it comes to the comic setup itself and story pacing rather than his art. Although I love his stuff a lot too *laugh*. The one that I took most influence from is Kishimoto Masashi of Naruto fame, which is something I haven't told many people. I'm not really a fan of the manga, but his art is amazing. I took my anatomy and perspective cues largely from him.

Though, for the past year or so, Disney and western animation in general have been strongly developing my work. Right now I'm trying to understand the mechanics of environmental and background drawing, which has been my Achilles' heel for years (I love drawing people too much), and the person I'm looking to that the most is Akihiko Yoshida, character designer of Yasumi Matsuno games by Square-Enix.

Rococo Flow: So as it is now, how would you describe your own style?

Jayd: A blend of anime and western? I honestly don't think on it too much, other than it being really, really cartoony. I leave the interpretations of what my art looks like to the people who view it.

Rococo Flow: Could you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

Jayd: I start with a rough of the overall body language and line of action. When I actually start drawing, I start with the face--the eyes specifically. The eyes are the number one most expressive part you can draw, and while it also determines the emotion of the character, it also solidifies the size, shape, and perspective of the entire picture. After that I work into refining the head, hair, shoulders, etc. until I work down the body and then add clothes and finishing touches.

Rococo Flow: What's your favorite and least favorite part of the drawing process?

Jayd: My favorite is by far the face. I think it's clear in my drawings that I just really, really love making my characters expressive without words. My least favorite part... would probably have to be my own impatience *laugh*. I doodle a lot because my attention span doesn't last very long. It's fun for the first bit but it can quickly turn into a chore if it lasts too long. This is largely why I find backgrounds such a pain, because they're so last minute and an afterthought.

Rococo Flow: What tools/programs do you primarily use for your artwork?

Jayd: I work primarily digitally, since the undo button is my god. I use a Wacom 6x8 tablet with the program Painter for my illustration purposes (for coloring and prints and the like) and Deleter Comicworks for quick sketching or comic purposes. Traditional mediums I rarely go beyond the simple pencils and paper, though I'm looking to practice with markers lately.

Rococo Flow: Do you think there's a divide between those who work primarily with a digital canvas as opposed to those who stick to just traditional media?

Jayd: Nah, I just think it's a matter of preference. The subject of the artwork determines the quality, not the medium. A good artist, I think, will make oneself as rounded and capable as possible to as many of the resources and tools she or he has access to, as well as style, so it really doesn't matter if it's digital or traditional.

Rococo Flow: Sounds good. Do you have any advice for any aspiring artists?

Jayd: Considering I'm still an aspiring artist myself this is a little difficult to answer! Well, best advice I can give is to be open and educate yourself. The more you know the more you can apply yourself to your work and grow. And practice. If I ever feel I need to stop practicing that means that someone needs to punch me because I'd be totally full of myself.

Rococo Flow: Fun question: If you could be any character from a cartoon, game, book, etc., who would you be?

Jayd: Fun? That's hard, man! But, I guess Sora from Kingdom Hearts. He gets to go around saving worlds, boogies down with Disney heroes and just beams sunshine all the while. He's living my childhood dream.

Rococo Flow: I LOVE the Kingdom Hearts series.

Jayd: It's so fantastic!

Rococo Flow: Actually, I absolutely love your “dancing Sora” pic, mainly because I don't see too many pictures of people dancing.

Jayd: I was surprised no one did a dancing Sora before me. He only shows how much he LOVES rocking out in the second game. Someday I plan to make a full colored sheet of him doing a Calvin & Hobbes thing, he deserves it.

Rococo Flow: That would be awesome.

Jayd: Great anatomy practice too ;-)

Rococo Flow: Are there any other comments you'd like to address?

Jayd: I've got nothing. This has been fabulous fun though.

To see more work by Jayd you can visit these links:

http://nepomirai.odbnoda.com – Main Portfolio site

Salad Days – Online web comic with Moonsheen.

http://chira-chira.deviantart.com – deviantART site

http://chirachira.livejournal.com – Main art blog

You can also email Jayd at chirachira@gmail.com

Artist Profile: lawnmowerpants

2007-07-24T14:39:00.000-04:00

For Rococo Flow’s first feature, I had the pleasure of interviewing the artist lawnmowerpants. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan but while growing up spent her time between there and Toronto, Canada. Her works have a sketchy and slightly messy feel to them. However, she has the ability to take very few colors and create pieces that are delicate and breathtaking.

How long have you been drawing?

I know almost every art interview you read says this, but I've been drawing as far back as I can remember. I wasn't allowed to watch television or play video games when I was younger so I spent a lot of time drawing and being creative but terrible.

How did you get interested in art?

My mother is a painter and she always wanted children in the family to keep art as a hobby. In terms of drawing anime/manga style... well, as a child who spent many years in Asia, naturally I got into manga and anime and wanted to try to draw it myself as well.

Who are your influences?

Anyone and everyone I admire in some way is an influence. This includes my friends and family, classic painters, and of course many professional mangaka as well as doujinshka. In particular GD (better known as GDMechano) who have drawn many Full Metal Alchemist doujinshi. There are artists that I really, REALLY like but I wouldn't call them an influence, in the sense that you probably won't see anything similar between my artwork and theirs, such as Honami Yukine and a crapload of game illustrators, like Yoshida Akihiko (FFTactics, FFIII, FFXII), Kazuma Kaneko, and sooo many more *hahaha*.

How would you describe your style?

I would say my style is fairly effeminate and fragile.

Can you describe your general approach to creating a picture?

I don't really CG or colour anything, so I'll talk about how I sketch. I start with a guideline/skeleton called a "sweep". If you've taken life drawing before then you probably know what I'm talking about. I usually start filling in the body first, but sometimes this fails miserably so I often start from the face too. It works better that way because nothing looks weirdly-sized or matched.

Like a lot of artists I draw a naked body and put the clothes on top, but I only do it for the upper torso and part of the legs, which is kind of awkward. In any case I don't actually follow the guideline I draw. It's more of a habit that makes me feel safer about how I draw. So if you look closely at any of my work you can usually see some random floating about and curls that are sort of beside/behind the characters *hahaha*. Other than that I think everything I do is the same as any other person?

What are your future aspirations?

In terms of relatively near-future aspirations, I really hope to one day (soon) publish a full doujinshi or an original comic up to something like 60 pages, all illustrated and inked and everything by myself. Except that sounds like a lot of work so I'm not sure I would be able to pull through, *hahaha*.

What programs do you primarily use for you artwork?

I pretty much only use Photoshop. I've been looking into practicing with ComicWorks so I can get better at inking, though.

What's your favorite traditional media?

PENCIL, hands down. It's my favourite medium overall.

Do have any advice for any other aspiring artists?

Hmmm for many artists, including myself, one of the most difficult things is getting past yourself. I mean like, getting upset because something you tried to draw won't turn out the way you wish, or really hating something you drew recently even though it's not too bad, or being overall disappointed in your progress. Don't let it stop you from drawing, you should just keep going and know that you can only improve with more practice.

If you could be any character from a video game, who would it be?

Most DEFINITELY the main character from Persona 3, or Serph from Digital Devil Saga, or Kuzunoha from Devil Summoner. Actually now that I think about it, any main character from the Megami Tensei series is just... *haha* wow I just really love them all.

You can view more work from lawnmowerpants at:

lawnmowerpants@deviantART - deviantArt Gallery
http://lmp.xxxxxxxx.jp - Homepage

If you would like to contact her you can email her at wander.colossi[at]gmail.com

Welcome to Rococo Flow!

2007-07-20T14:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Rococo Flow! The aim of this blog is to highlight various young artists whose artwork we have great admiration for. Along with this, we also plan to feature art studios and groups whose works are gaining notoriety, as well any artbooks out on the market.

Hope you enjoy your stay!

Rococo Flow