What is the best piece of art you've ever seen in your life? That's a difficult question to answer but yes, I am making a list of those artists who have some deep thinking in their artwork. Art that has different meanings for different people, everyone sees it differently according to his/her own perspective and I went through such artwork about two weeks ago!
Hexen: Temptation - Copyright Alix Branwyn - All Rights Reserved
Doppelganger - Copyright Alix Branwyn - All Rights Reserved
As soon as I saw these two pictures, I started thinking the purpose behind making these artworks and no one in this world could answer my questions other than the creator herself, so I contacted her and asked a couple of questions about her philosophy of art!
Meet Alix Branwyn
Tell us about your childhood. Where were you born, how many siblings do you have and whatever you would like to share with us?
I was born in Horseheads, New York, which is a small town in the Elmira/Corning area upstate. I managed to live in the same house until I moved away to Pittsburgh for college with my parents and one older sister. Ever since I moved to the west coast, about 10 years ago or so, I haven’t really been back, as Seattle really feels more like “home” than anywhere now.
How and when did you feel that you should become an artist? What was the first thing you drew?
I started drawing when most artists do, as early as I can remember as a kid. I would guess that my first drawing would probably have been an animal, a cat or a horse maybe, as that was what I was really fond of drawing then. I’m not really sure there’s ever a moment that you feel like you should become an artist, as much as it just becomes something you keep doing enough that you begin to get better at it and decide to ride out where that goes because the process is so enjoyable for you. It helped that my mother had been interested in art in her youth but was discouraged from it by her parents, and she wanted to prevent that from being the case for me. Anytime I wanted to try a new medium she was down to get what I needed for it, and I think that nurturing made it possible for me to feel it was really viable to pursue.
How long have you been working in the art industry?
I’ve been working professionally as an artist for the last 12 years, starting as a tattoo artist initially while I went through college. After I received my Bachelor’s degree in 2008 I moved to Seattle and landed in a position creating poster illustrations for a design firm and I stayed there for about 5 years before moving on. In the past 4 years I’ve moved into creating illustration on a freelance basis for games and print as well as working full time in the game industry as an illustrator.
I went through your website and the first two images (Hexen Temptation and Hexen Familiar) I saw had snakes around the necks of women. Also noticed that you used animals in most of your artworks to express something, what’s the inspiration behind creating this type of artwork?
Those two images in particular are part of a series titled “Hexen” that I am creating, and they all deal with the lore and symbolism surrounding witchcraft and the occult. In the image “Temptation” the snake is meant to represent the snake from the story of original sin, as Eve’s temptation was used as a reasoning why women were the more susceptible sex to fall to the lure of witchcraft. In “Familiar” the image is reversed, a black snake with an albino woman, with the snake enraptured by the woman as it is her familiar. I like the way we as humans weave animals into the stories we tell across all cultures, and I think incorporating them into the art helps to draw viewers into a piece. Also, since animals were my subject matter of choice when I drew things as a kid, I think there’s just some comfort and zen there for me as I create the art when I include them.
You do both traditional and digital artwork, which one do you love the most?
I think I honestly prefer digital, but I think the traditional helps to mentally supplement the digital work in a way I hadn’t fully appreciated until recently. I had taken a period of about 10 years away from working traditionally with paints (I’ve always sketched over the years on paper, but paint is a different animal) and picked them up again maybe only about 3 years ago or so. The way that you apply the strokes and the level of “done” that you have to accept when you don’t have the ability to zoom in like in digital really helps to translate back into working in the computer on a tablet. There’s a danger of touching something too much, over rendering it, and I think the traditional work peppered in helps remind me to fight that urge.
I watched your 21 Million Bitcoin Club and pwned artwork process videos and I was just speechless! Like if I am not wrong, these were the time lapse videos, how much time it took to draw these awesome artworks?
I hope those videos weren’t too long! I realized after watching Christina’s that I maybe should have cut it to a highlight reel rather than just doing a speed-up of the whole process. Each of those images took approximately 20 to 25 hours to complete, I think I applied a 4x to the speed for the video so it wouldn’t be an eternity long for someone to see the whole process. Rendering always takes the longest, just making sure that an area has enough tightness to read nice when it’s printed in a large poster size, but it tends to be a really Zen part of the process where I can watch media in the background and absorb information as I work.
You’ve been working with Troy as well with his Cryptoart thing, tell us how did he find you and what do you think about combining crypto with art and technology?
I believe Troy found me through some of the poster work I had done at my previous employer making its way around the web. I had one Dia de los Muertos image that I created for them that became pretty popular online that became the inspiration for the Pwned piece. I had fortunately gone freelance right around the time he contacted me, so it was a mix of good timing and the right skillset fit to jump into doing the work for him. I think the mix of crypto and art is a really interesting take and I’m excited to see where his model goes moving forward now that crypto really seems to be gaining more public interest.
What are your future plans? What projects are you currently working on?
Right now I’m working on personal projects in my spare time, new pieces for my Hexen series to create into apparel and potentially a book of tutorial content for some digital art tricks that I employ creating the pieces, some new small oil paintings as well. I’m just trying to take the time to explore some avenues I haven’t had as much time to play with, stylistically as well as formats for production, to try to figure out exactly what I enjoy doing.
What are your thoughts about the blockchain technology and this crypto currency era?
I have a mix of excitement and trepidation when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency. I think the uses for blockchain are really versatile and they are bound to catch on and integrate into many other arenas, especially smart contracts which I’ve already been hearing about being utilized for artists specifically on certain platforms. The trepidation comes in since I hold some crypto, and there’s always a little worry that it can go bust and the flurry of activity surrounding it feeds a bit of that concern.
Have you ever heard about Steemit?
I haven’t heard of Steemit specifically, but I’ve been introduced to some platforms that work similarly by friends recently.
Do you have any advice for new future artists?
There’s a balance to be struck in working as a creative between stability and financial security, and finding out what you actually really love about the process of creating art and where you feel fulfilled spending your time. Sometimes you can get so driven to make a living solely off art that you can wind up in a position where your creative tanks are completely drained by making things you don’t care about for people you would really rather not work for, and when you have a job that pays you to do this you feel like one of the “lucky ones” because at least it’s a creative job. It can be a trap, and it can be one that will divert so much of your creative energy that you never really get to explore the things that actually matter to you. Keep a close eye on what part of the process you enjoy and if you can figure out a way to make that work as a job, fantastic, but if not, don’t feel shame in making a living in a different field in order to have that energy for yourself.
Thank you so much Alix for taking your time out and answering my questions! You are blessed with real talent and we hope to see some more beautiful artworks from you!
Love!
@ghulammujtaba
You have been upvoted by @slothicorn. Thanks for your contribution. This is a fantastic interview and amazing art that you have found. Thank you for your continued work in Slothicorn, we appreciate you! Upvoted at full power and resteemed.
Thank you, Stella :)
This is quite interesting and the images are brilliant. I love the second one a lot!
Me too, I perceived and defined this image from different angles!
This quote really nailed it for me personally:
Well done Ghulammujtaba!
A fantastic interview !!!
People are doing amazing work. Really impressed. I will for sure learn by following experienced guys like you and improve myself 👍
Sure, let me know if you need my help with anything and thanks for your words :)
Wow that is amazing bro 👍
Congratulations @ghulammujtaba! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP