[INTERVIEW] HOF OF FEBRUARY 2016 @IDIADESIGN

2016-02-17. AM 08:40
WeeklyTIP

  • [Interview] HOF February 2016 @IdiaDesign

    In his(her) collection, there are many characters of the movies and dramas in the 70 ~ 80s, which are not so much familiar to the current generation.

    But once you know about them, you will certainly be attracted by those great works.

    Those famous works which never need any description have their originals long ago. @IdiaDesign rendered them in a digital form.



  • The light bulb in profile and her nickname ‘@IdiaDesign’ give an impression that she is always trying to think of ideas about ‘with what work I should do today?’

    I would like to say to her that we are so grateful to her works for introducing those great works.

    Now let’s get started with her interview.

    Actually, we didn’t know the person is male or female before this interview.
    But once we have posted this, we will know that.

    It is really exciting.




    Q1. @PEN.UP :

    Hi! @IdiaDesign,
    Congratulations on your being a member of HOF in February, 2016.
    How do you feel about that?

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    First of all, thank you so much and second,
    I'm sorry for my poor english. That's pretty amazing considering the talented people present on the HOF. I'm not used to the attention so I also feel a bit strange but positively!

    I live in Belgium so when I heard the facebook notification, it was 3 am. So a huge surprise, I was not expecting that.




    Q2. @PEN.UP :

    Actually there is no indication whether you are male or female.
    Would you introduce yourself briefly, about your job, the country where you live, etc.?
    And I think it is possible that you are working in a design team of some movie or drama production company.
    Your nickname ‘IdiaDesign’ is also like some company name.

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    My name is Diana, I'm 30 years old and I'm a woman....mmh I think so... lol I'm joking.
    I work as a graphic designer /art director for a magazine on justice in Brussels.

    Altough I did my studies on Cinema at the univeristy, I'm not working on movie production unfortunely

    but I love my work. I write, create all sorts of visuals for the magazine and his communication.

    I worked for a few years as a freelance so I kept my name "Idia Design" as a mix for Idea and Diana.




    Q3. @PEN.UP :

    While others try portraits of friends,
    landscapes, or all kinds of digital drawing,
    you have solely focused on portraits of the characters from movies, dramas, or TV shows since your signing up in 2014.

    We are really curious. Is there any particular reason you do so?
    I guess that is the genre you are most confident with.

  • A. @IdiaDesign :

    Yes, I guess I'm passionate about audiovisual.
    For many years, I only draw invented characters because I love to create stories and comic books for myself.
    And sometimes, I did portrait for friends or events.

    But, since I started to use the note 4, I have wanted to continue with something more recognizable, more popular.

    I always make portraits or paintings on furniture or sketches on paper but I never think to share them on Pen Up. Also, I have to say, I'm really bad with landscape, city views, animals etc.
    That's a shame because I love them bit I'm not good at it hahaha




    Q4. @PEN.UP :

    Your first works were ‘pencil sketches.’

  • Are they really done with hands?
    And what is the motivation that made you take up drawing in the first place, and when did you first start digital drawing, and why?

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    Yes, I did them with just a pencil in a sketchbook.
    At first, I wanted to work my rapidity, that's why I started those drawings.

    My exercice was to take 30 minutes to draw a portrait or hands or a silhouette and see how fast I could work and what lines were the first to come naturally to me.

    You know like some people start with noses, other with the shape of the face. For myself, it's the eyes.

    Unfortunately, I've never had practical classes of art so I never learned an effective method to draw.

    I wanted to see first if I could draw without the security of digital art.

    Because that's the thing, when you draw digital, you can erase, start over, change tones etc. But on paper or on canvas, you pretty much have to believe in yourself and draw the lines!

    A confidence I don't have, that's why I wanted to start with paper to keep the real deal.




    Q5. @PEN.UP :

    Spartacus, Labyrinth, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Wars, X File, etc.

    The movies and drama I met through your collection are over 10 works.

  • Sandor Clegane, the hound / spartacus2 / Yoda / The Empress of Fantasia

    It is really amazing that you take the characters of those great works and make them look alive with their facial gestures.

    And I would also like to ask about this. What is your favorite move and drama and why?

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    Thank you so much, I do love characters and expressions. Its a difficult question you ask there,

    there are to many movies I love but i have to say that the movie The Hours really touches me in the drama section. I'm moved by the stories that point little but so important things in life.

    The direction and photography are beautiful as the actors. Lately, the movie Interstellar had the same effect on me, it was an upsetting and deep experience.

    I also love Inarritu, Stephen Daldry, Kubrick, Spielberg, JJ Abrahams, Amenabar, Almodovar and so many others. Otherwise I'm like a lot of people,

    I love Star Wars, Lord of the rings and others. Epic, fantasy, science-fiction, japanese horror movies, animes, british cinema etc




    Q6. @PEN.UP :

    Among your works there are some characters from rather old movies like Spartacus, Labyrinth, and Never-ending Story.

    And there some characters from those works which contain lots of episodes like Game of Thrones, Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

  • Hoggle and Sarah from Labyrinth / Daenerys of Targaryen / Buffy and Giles

    Among those works you used, there are some which were remade long after their originals were released.

    If you have seen all the episodes of these series, you are really a huge fan. Have you really seen all of them?

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    As for what I draw, yes, I’ve seen it all.

    Movies like Labyrinth or Never-ending Story come directly from my childhood. For tv shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Xena, X-Files, I saw them when I was a teenager then now I follow other tv shows like Game of Thrones, Dexter, American Horror Story etc.

    I have a huge collection of dvds and blurays at home and try to follow a certain amount of tv shows that I find interesting.




    Q7. @PEN.UP :

    What is the character you put the biggest effort on or you feel most attached to, and why?

    There are images above and below which we chose.

    (If they are not among these images, just refer to the title)

  • A. @IdiaDesign :

    Amidala from Star Wars took me time because, let’s face it,
    Natalie Portman is really beautiful and I dit not wanted to mess up her face, her eyes and the softness of the skin.

    I’m also attached to the Crixus and Naevia drawing because I love the relationship and it’s a scene directly caught from the tv show.

    I wanted the emotion of the scene. I’m note quite sure I nailed it but I took a lot of pleasure doing it.

    I also took a lot of time for Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games and I think it's my best work on this kind of work.




    Q8. @PEN.UP :

    I know your favorite drawing app is Artflow.

    Have you ever seen the tutorial video “Artflow Tutorial” made by the management team?

    Artflow Tutorial #1. LAYER PANEL
    https://youtu.be/Z47Bz6MZIGs

    Artflow Tutorial #2. Brush Tool
    https://youtu.be/RtycQUTUV58

    And you once said that while using Artflow, many layers and effects in it are really helpful. So we are curious about with what particular tool or effect you use when you do a portrait.

  • A. @IdiaDesign :

    No I never saw it but I’ll watch it now!

    I really love this app because it’s simple and pretty complete as for the layers and blend modes. First, I start with a blue line, then the black line on another layer. Then I start a new layer with skin tones,

    I use a brush with opacity 100 then I’m going to play with variant tones by using the same brush but with lower opacity. Then another layer for clothes, another for hair etc.

    As you can see, I really like the splatter tool for the background.

    For the Vegeta there for example, I also use a layer with lines in shapes of ray that I painted black, then I simply used the blend mode multiply.

    For example, in the Maleficent drawing, I used the blend mode Overlay wich gives more saturation to the colors and another color to the ensemble.

    Another example is on Geoffrey from Game of Thrones on who I used different layers for the clothes and the floral pattern, then I played with the blend modes.

    Here are some examples of my use of layers and blend modes on the Hunger Games drawing and on a Xena one where I used a soft brush with a blend mode “Lighten”.

    On the Hunger Games drawing, I first painted the face grey-ish ; I didn't liked it so I just added a layer to give it a tone more close to the background.




    Q9. @PEN.UP :

    You would add life to otherwise common pictures by creating neon light with depth.


  • Would you tell us what effect of what brush you use when you create these works? I also want to learn these methods, and they are not easy to learn.

    And the most novices would feel this way.

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    For those drawings, I sometimes use two different things. First, I can create shades of white or bright colors o an upper layer, then, I just have to change the blend mode.

    For example on the eleventh doctor, I just used a soft brush, color green, I painted the area in front of the screwdriver and chose a blend mode Overlay to give it some energy.

    I always create a layer with dark color or black, then on upper layers play with light and soft brushes.

    For Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there's the character on front then the other behind, for that, I just used a red layer on the character present in the background and play with the blend mode.

    For the light on the hand, it's simply a soft brush with a green side and another pink, then a blend mode. Unfortunately,

    I don't have many drawings anymore on my phone (no more space) but I can share the files from my mac.

    Then, there's always the possibility when you're done with the drawing to play with a photography app as Pixlr wich can create really cool lens flare, blur and other things.

    Using that, you can give more personnality or contrast, play with variant coloring or textures when you're not happy with result.




    Q10. @PEN.UP :

    A remix work caught my eyes. That is the work for last May’s challenge “Drawing Heroes.”

    What made you do this remix work, and where did you put additional effort?

    And now that you have experienced the remix feature, how do you feel about that?

  • original artwork by @ivanski215 / remixed by @IdiaDesign :

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    I simply loved the idea of starting from a line already created
    and propose something that would autmotically be different from another person
    because we're all different so we, each, bring something else to the colors, the ambiance, the coloring techniques etc.
    I wish there were more exercices of this type because that was brilliant and some people proposed reaaally good things !

    For example, what I did was very simple and close to the Batman we all know but some people took it to a completely different direction with bright colors and effects.




    Q11. @PEN.UP :

    It was very upsetting that you had uploaded many portraits of those movie or drama characters until August,
    but for quite a while we couldn't see your works any more.

    And then four of your works were uploaded in October, which made us really glad. And then came another retreat which soon followed by the recent work of X-File characters.

    I guess you are really busy.

  • While you have created works on those famous character,
    who are the ones you recently got interested in working with?

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    Yeah, I have too much work and unfortunately can't draw all the time, I'm the first one to be sad about that, believe me. On october,

    I've had a convention wich allowed me to draw again and share the work and then, work again and no more time. But I plan to really come back !

    And I think I'm gonna start working on American Horror Story wich has amazing visual, then some of the new characters on Star Wars : the Force awakens.
    And finally, come back to original invented characters.




    Q12. @PEN.UP :

    Are there your ideal muses or the ones you respect most?
  • I guess a French songwriter and actor Serge Gainsbourg could be one of them.

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    Oh this one was actually a gift for a friend who adores Serge Gainsbourg. As you say, he's a french actor and songwriter very respected.

    Personnally, I'm in love with the work and talent of Hayao Miyazaki, to mee, he's the best in animation and I love his universe.
    In painters, I really love Frida Khalo, Rothko, Dali or Klimt.




    Q13. @PEN.UP :

    We are so grateful that you bothered to answer all those questions.
    But we are close to the end.

    How was your last year?
    And what are your goals and whishes for 2016?

  • A. @IdiaDesign :

    It didn't bored me at all,
    I just hoped my english was not too bad !

    Lol I'm not really used to answer questions in english. I thank you very much for your attention and your kindness and I'm so sorry it took me so much time to answer you.

    My year was actually great! I worked a lot, drew a lot, I moved, met new people, went to my first convention as a guest.
    Ans as for 2016, I just hope I can keep the people I love close to me,

    be healthy, keep my hand so I can keep drawing and keep meeting great people such as the ones on the Pen Up community.




    Q14. @PEN.UP :

    How did you start activities in PEN.UP?

    And it would be very helpful to friends if you tell us your ideas about PEN.UP and why you participate in PEN.UP.

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    I discovered the app when I bought my Galaxy Note 4, I first tought it was an Instagram for drawing then I found out it was much more then that, a real sharing art community.

    That's what I liked about it and still does. There are some incredibles talents and other people who start or just want to have fun
    and I love that people can share what they do without keeping it “closed”. You know, artistic “community” can be very elitist and I personnally don't like it.

    I think art is for everyone that want to express something and share it. People on Pen Up are kind and open on many kinds of drawings, styles, expressions and I love the principle.

    It would be great to developp even more the tutorials and maybe organize meetings but it would be pretty hard considering the international aspect of the app and Samsung.




    Q15. @PEN.UP :

    This is the last question.
    What does drawing mean to your life?

    A. @IdiaDesign :

    It's vital. I'm not sure why it's so important. I just know that when I wake up and take my cup of coffee, I have paper on the table and I start drawing without thinking about it.

    Wether on paper, digitally or on furniture, this mecanism is a part of me. Not all of me but a pretty big part.

    Thank you for your cooperation.
    We hope you continue to make us happy with your wonderful pictures. PEN.UP always support you.


  • It has been a precious time with @IdiaDesign, who is a new member of HOF in February, 2016.

    PEN.ple share the common hobby, which is drawing.

    And we can share tips, apps, and information about devices together.

    Through @IdiaDesign, I could know American and English dramas, great old movies I never knew before, so I became more interested in them, and I even started to try to find information about those characters.

    That is PEN.UP where we can get new information about pictures and find something new we were never interested in before, and, by doing so, take another hobby.

  • In PEN.UP we don't particularly need to draw.

    We just hope that we will learn something from pictures and find other pleasures.

    So this wraps up the interview with @IdiaDesign. ^_^