MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1209879
Q. How did you get started with art and did you have any initial plans on how you imagined your career? I started doing art for fun when I was really young, but I originally wanted to go into music as my career. After high school, I attended a design and illustration school, but I realized that that wasn't really my passion. Design and illustration are very different and going through that process of schooling really burnt me out and made me step away from art for eight years. I returned to art almost accidentally, when a friend gave me a graphics tablet and, as I had some downtime from work, I started drawing and eventually live streaming online. I found my passion for art again. One thing led to another and now it's my career. Q. Do you have a favorite medium to work with? If you asked me to pick a favorite, I cannot do that. (laughs) I love all these different mediums for different reasons. For example, watercolor is very free and I love how watercolor and ink can create very unexpected results, which forces me to step out of the box. With acrylics, you have a little more control, and with resin paintings, you have the depth to play with. However, you cannot go back and fix it, so you have to improvise and train your creativity. At the same time, digital art is so accessible. I can change color palettes and lineart in no time, which allows me to experiment faster, it allows me to practice, structure and learn my foundations with fewer resources required. You can create thousands of images and it will not cost you anything extra. Both traditional and digital art have their benefits and they also complement each other very well. That's why I cannot pick a favorite. Q. What inspires you as an artist? Seeing stories come to life through art had a great impact on me. However, when I grew up, there was a time when I stepped away from 2D art. I became inspired by dance and the emotions that could be portrayed through movement and gestures. I also love music and music videos and I would make sketches based on how a song would make me feel. Fashion also impacted me a lot and I take inspiration from movies and how they apply lighting and frame a scene. For me, inspiration always comes from everyday experience, rather than only looking at other artists' works. Q. As someone who has attended art school, how important do you think an education in art is these days? I stopped recommending people attend art school because, nowadays, art and learning about art is so accessible. There are places like Patreon, where your favorite artists may o'er tutorials and classes, showing you how things are done; there is YouTube and Twitch, where people teach live on camera. I, for example, have been answering so many questions on Instagram and on my own live streams. Right now there are far fewer barriers between budding artists and knowledge. That being said, art school can still be very influential in the way that it forces