What makes a man great?
It may be the ability to imagine.
Imagination indeed enriches and smoothens people’s lives.
If a man has to adhere only to the desire to live – to feed and to work – his/her life will be tough and rough.
Imagination is not just a simple ability; it is rather a right to live a better life.
That is, a right to dream.
Our HOF of March shows such imaginative skills in PENUP.
It is artist @Anim.
The artworks on the artist’s feed are rolled out like pieces of dreams.
The artist draws the fantasy world and mystical characters in it in a sensuous manner.
We feel flattered ahead of the interview with the artist as if we are traveling to a world of unknown.
Now, let us begin the interview with artist @Anim. : )
Q1. @PENUP :
Hello, @Anim!
We are from the PENUP team.
You’ve been appointed as the HOF of March.
Congratulations!
First, we would like to ask how you feel about this.
A1. @Anim :
I am really really flattered to be part of your selection.
I really did not expect it because my style is very different from other selected artists but hey here I am!!
Lately I have been selected by a few other organization, which makes me wonder how my drawing skills really evolved over time.
Few people know about my activity on PENUP because I keep it secret…
It’s one of the rare places where you find really really old works of mine.
Some of my drawings here on PENUP even disappeared from my harddisk that crashed, which makes it the only place for people to look at my history.
Q2. @PENUP :
Please introduce yourself to us.
A2. @Anim :
I am a Belgian amateur digital artist living in Brussels.
I hope one day PENUP will come to Brussels. It’s a beautiful city full of wonderful artists.
Historically speaking Belgium is actually known for raising a few incredibly famous painters like René Magritte, Pierre Paul Rubens or even Pieter Brueghel.
One would expect I have been influenced by my country.
The truth is different, as my first and primary source of inspiration is FENG Zhu, an incredibly generous concept artist who has made revealing videos about how to push ones imagination into concepts.
People who know me will understand why.
What drives me is not how to make a beautiful and clean illustration.
What drives me goes far beyond painting. Painting is only a tool.
A tool to explain how crazy your mind is, how great ideas can be and how beautiful some ordinary things are.
Q3. @PENUP :
Below sentence in your profile on the feed caught our eyes.
“Digital drawing is a passion.”
This reveals your insight about digital drawing.
You said that digital drawing is passion and we would like to ask what part of the digital drawing brings you passion.
A3. @Anim :
A passion is more than a hobby. Passion is like working, except it’s fun.
One will say you will have to work hard to became a great artist.
I say one must have passion to become a great artist. It’s the same thing, but has a different name.
As a recruiter you only find the best suitable people when you can see the difference between someone with passion and someone without.
Passion makes you stay up late for your work. It drives your life, your way of thinking.
Passion will keep your fridge empty but it will also keep you away from it. When you’re passionate you forget everything, even your hungriness.
As an academic psychologist I can only tell you how big the impact of your brain can have on your body.
When I find myself in a painting I feel like a god creating a world.
I guess it releases dopamine and acts like a drug.
One can only have this feeling when one has control over what one wants to draw.
That, my dear is what drives me to work on my skills, that drug inside my head!
Q4. @PENUP :
You put quite many hashtags.
“Galaxy Note” and “Spen” are among them.
We believe that you work with Samsung’s Galaxy Note.
What device are you using among the Galaxy Note series?
What is the advantage of using Spen in digital drawing?
A4. @Anim :
I have been using Artflow so many times, it’s great!
Now I also sketch on the Remarkable, a tablet conceived for sketching and taking notes, but it’s not as good as a Galaxy Note with the Spen.
Today most of my art is painted in Photoshop directly.
The reason for that is that I own a Cintiq.
However one does not need a Cintiq to make great paintings.
This is a big misconception.
he only thing one needs to know is light… and practice!
If you really want to become a better artist you have to understand LIGHT.
You are able to put yourself in the place of the light you will discover how easy it is to create space in 2D.
But it needs time… but you eventually will see the light.
Q5. @PENUP :
Rich imagination is the attractive part about your works.
Your works are themed on creative mystical world beyond imagination.
Is there any reason you draw imagination-based pieces instead of the real world?
A5. @Anim :
I studied psychology at the University of Ghent.
Nothing too complicated but it did make me realize a few things about how the human brain works.
It’s funny how people think in terms of black and white, imagination and real world.
I really like real world painting, I actually do!!
But I always feel like a thief when I do paint real world things and call it mine.
It feels like a fraud to me.
I know it’s strange but I always try to tax my paintings with a 21% imagination.
I am actually a very bad accountant.
I sometimes end up with a full and crazy world.
People are creeped out by my paintings sometimes.
Q6. @PENUP :
It is often the case to use intellectual themes like futuristic city when one draws a world of imagination.
Such drawings are associated with the future where people will be living in.
But most of the imaginative world in your artworks is based on nature.
You seem to draw the city and town with strange emotion in nature.
For that reason, the period is quite vague.
It seems to be a world from future or an unforgettable city in the far past.
That is why your drawings give more mystical feeling.
Is there any reason you draw such city in this natural landscape?
A6. @Anim :
I always like to imagine one world in the future.
It’s easier because everything is still possible.
If almost all human die tomorrow and only a few people will survive do you know what will happen?
Imagine if these few people aren’t the most intelligent people and they can’t even use a computer or read English.
What will they do?
I’d like imagine they will have to start over, building wooden houses from scratch HAHA.
The past is the past, it’s gone, we know what happened, that’s it.
Go forward now!
Q7. @PENUP :
Unique characters were also attractive.
You often draw warriors, soldiers, robots and monsters.
Also, there are many war-motivated characters.
What is the part that you put most focus on when drawing a character?
A7. @Anim :
I’m really bad at drawing characters.
I always tend to spend too much time on the face.
Or the body.
One thing that I love about characters is the posture and clothing.
Now that I think about it I really should do some life drawing, it could help.
But I am lazy, so lazy…
My characters are mostly warriors because it tells an easy story.
It’s always the same…
A guy goes to war and risks his life…
So great haha!
Q8. @PENUP :
In rare cases, you drew normal people or flowers that could be easily seen around.
These artworks really show delicate observatory skills and presentation instead of imagination.
Is there any plan for you to draw more of these?
A8. @Anim :
Well I should do more and I did since these posts!
It really helps to study real life.
It’s a therapy too.
I’m too often overly burning my brain when all I have to do is look around.
Nature is beautiful, and it’s everywhere, why not take it and get inspired.
Recently I have changed to an mindset where I always use some kind of reference to get inspiration from.
The world is filled with crazy infinitely complex shapes, who am I to thing I can create new shapes out of nothing!
Q9. @PENUP :
The key communications character in PENUP is that the users share artistic inspirations to get motivations in art while they do not know the nationality, gender nor face of each other.
Among the hashtags that you’ve written out, “titiart” is often seen.
Is it @TITIART that has been appointed as HOF of December 2016?
The themes and presentation of the two artists are similar.
You may be sharing artistic inspirations with each other.
Do you happen to get inspirations from other users’ artworks?
A9. @Anim :
like I said FENG Zhu is my main source.
@TITIART has secretly been my exception.
He has the style I like, and he is on PENUP.
He doesn’t know but I am a big fan of him. : )
Q10. @PENUP :
We are left with last question.
Is there anything you want from the PENUP team?
A10. @Anim :
I want you to come to Brussels!!
Organize something, with all the best Belgian PENUPPERS, it would be amazing!
I would love to help you set something up!
Also for the people who are interested I do post videos of me painting on my facebook page.
These videos are speeded up and a great way to see how to improve your technique.
Just take a look: --- www.facebook.com/RVHStudio ---
We’ve had an interview with @Anim, our HOF of March.
It was a time for us to really ponder upon the creativity of the people who dream and imagine.
When you get so busy with your daily life for existence, you don’t have time to see far away.
Then, you end up losing your right to dream that enables you to imagine the far away things.
Just forget about the imminent things for a minute.
Close your eyes and think and imagine.
Enrich and beautify your life through imagination.
Don’t forget to put the imagination onto the drawing and post them up on PENUP! : )
PENUP - Share your drawings!
https://www.penup.com-The PENUP Team
 |
|