CASE STUDY
Q How would you describe yourself?
A ‘I always struggle a bit with this question but I tend to float somewhere between an illustrator, maker and painter. However, drawing and sketching have always been the basis of my creative process whatever I’m working on.
‘I studied design for performance at the Royal Welsh College in Cardiff; we covered a huge range of creative skills within theatre and television, from set design and scenic art to costume and puppetry. I specialised in scenic art and worked in television and theatre after graduation. Alongside my work as a scenic artist, I developed an illustration outlet on the side which, since taking time away from the scenic painting side of work, has stuck by my side and developed into something I really love to do.’
Q When did you discover digital art? A ‘When I first started my illustration work
I used watercolour and I realised pretty quickly that I struggled to achieve the kind of work I wanted to create, as well as being able to work quickly and spontaneously. I felt frustrated that I couldn’t achieve the level of detail I wanted and by the colour palette limitations. I turned to other illustrators for guidance and they suggested having a go at working digitally.
‘What I love the most about digital art is how freeing it is. All I need is my tablet and my stylus, so I can create work anywhere without worrying about sketchbooks, paints and brushes. You can create a large volume of work a lot faster and you’re able to make edits without having to start from scratch. Going digital felt a lightbulb moment and it scratched the itch I had of feeling I never had enough time or resources to pursue art to the level I wanted to: it definitely allowed me to do things within illustration I simply wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.’
Q Top tips for fine artists who are new to digital art?
A ‘Firstly, I’d say it’s important to stay disciplined with your drawing practice. Of course, digital art allows for a much more streamlined process, which is fantastic in many ways, but it can result in cutting corners and getting a bit lazy, whether that’s tracing or duplicating elements rather than drawing it twice. I try to make sure I don’t become too lazy within the ease of digital drawing.
‘My next tip is to know when to stop – with digital art it is lot harder to know when a piece is finished because you have those limitless constraints; you can constantly change, tweak, recolour and resize to the point where it can never feel finished. When you’re painting or drawing offline, it’s easier to know when to stop because you don’t have those unlimited options, so I must be quite firm with myself when I decide a digital piece is finished.
‘I would say that finding a balance between digital and traditional, and a way that they can complement each other, is really important. Some artists work solely digitally but I often miss the tangible, tactile elements of sitting and drawing with a pencil on paper, which digital art doesn’t have so much. Sometimes I find the limitless possibilities of digital art slightly overwhelming and going back to a pencil and paper helps to keep my art practice grounded.’
Q What current projects are you working on and where do you find inspiration? A ‘In terms of current projects, I’m really keen to push my illustration work further into more sequential art and comics. I love
writing and storytelling, so combining that with illustration into sequential art feels really exciting and a welcome challenge now that I can feel my personal style developing. ‘Currently, my inspiration comes from the countryside, specifically the broad, expansive, coastal landscapes. I love the earthy colours and the jagged, rough, weather-beaten lines and shapes that appear in these landscapes – even if what I’m drawing isn’t one of those landscapes, I try to emulate that feeling even just by the colour choices or quality of line. I was very lucky to have grown up in some beautiful countryside, so I think I’ll always carry that with me and it will continue to inspire me. I find my work often has a sense of peacefulness, calm and stillness, which perhaps mirrors what I’m trying to seek out now, having moved from the countryside back to the city.’
Q What tools and software do you favour? A ‘My set-up is very simple but it’s taken me a while to get to that point. After trying a few different ways to draw digitally I’ve found that using Procreate on the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil works best for me. It feels very intuitive and easy to use, yet it still feels like there is a lot of technical scope to push the boundaries. Essentially, it can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be. The Apple Pencil is also pressure sensitive so you can achieve a variety of line and tone, in the same way that if you press harder or lighter with a pencil or paintbrush.
‘With the digital software I’ve used previously, I had to plug a drawing tablet into a computer screen, which meant there was a disconnect between what I was drawing on and what I was looking at. But with the iPad you’re drawing straight onto the screen, which is much more intuitive. Of course, some of my most important tools are still a stack of paper and a pencil; my paper of choice is the Fabriano Tiziano, a lightly textured, off-white pastel paper with a Blackwing Pearl Palomino pencil.’