I am a very short girl, who enjoys drawing fandoms such as Genshin Impact, Naruto, Harry Potter and The Legend of Zelda. As of now, I am 28 years old, and I work as a freelance artist and ESL teacher. I LOVE peach tea.

No. I am self-taught. I actually have a masters in chemistry. I dropped out of my Chemistry PhD in my first year because I realised that science was not something I wanted to pursue in my life. I do not regret studying chemistry though - it was a very interesting and valuable experience. Would I had the chance to choose now though, I’d go study a degree in Illustration.

Here are some that I often turn to for inspiration:

ArtbyLouris, Djamila Knopf, Guinevere, Mimimaru, Heikala, Mateusz Urbanowicz, Ladowska, Mehkuni, Devin Elle Kurtz, Marc Brunet, and many others.

I really make sure that I draw what I enjoy. There are days when I wake up and have no desire to pick up my pen. When that happens, it is time to go back to studying. I go back to my Morpho books, youtube tutorials and my favourite artists and dedicate the day to studying anatomy, colour theory, etc. That way I feel accomplished, even though no illustration is being made.

Take a break. No seriously. If art frustrates you, it is time to put it down and take-a-well-deserved-break. I hit the wall 2-3 a year and usually, it comes after a big project or when I refuse to pace myself.

This relates to the previous questions, but when a time like this hits, I often restrict myself to no art for up to 3-5 days. Instead, I go back to passive studying - watching tutorials, watching an animated film, reading some books, playing video games for inspiration.

Sometimes it also helps to switch a medium. So for example I go from digital to traditional.

I start with the light gesture drawings followed by a detailed soft lineart. Then I shade in black and white. When this is done, I turn the black and white sketch to red (using curves) and with multiply layers, I block in the basic colours. Then I create a normal layer and I begin to paint in all the other details. I often finish the background first before I move on to the characters.

In 2020, I had to move in with my parents for 4 months while I recovered from an illness. I had to leave all my traditional media in my flat in a completely different country. I only had my old iPad with me, which was the only way I could make art. I have been drawing digitally on my iPad ever since.

I still use good old pencil and paper from time to time, but I have found that digital painting gives me great creative freedom and helps me to visualise my glowing fantasy brain cells. hahaha

In general - I just enjoy digital painting more at the moment.

I still do some oil painting every now and then.