This series of interviews will shed some light on some of the Mixed Media artists dA has to offer. This issue features *Odessa11 who uses digital painting and photomanipulation to touch up her traditionally made designs.



1) Please tell us a little about yourself first.
I'm 22 years old, I'm currently living in Santa Fe, NM and I've been doing art in one form or another all my life. I started doing digital art in 2003 when I was living in Vancouver, Canada and that's when I first joined deviantART. I also write and illustrate children’s books and I do conceptual illustration for film.

2) How did you start out with art? Which was the first (digital) medium you used and why this one?
I started working traditionally in pencil and ink and ventured into acrylics a little bit when I was in high school. In 2003 I began working in Photoshop and I loved it right away. Soon after that, I started using a pen tablet which went hand in hand with Photoshop and has become one of my favorite tools.

3) What prompted you to venture beyond this medium?
I never felt that traditional media was suited for me and I craved something more expansive. The digital world has personally offered a lot more freedom for me to use my imagination and execute the exact ideas that I have in my head at the time. It also allows me to apply traditional techniques to my digital pieces which often makes for a richer finished product.

4) What does “Mixed Media” mean to you?
I feel that it's a wonderful way to incorporate many different ideas, textures, and feelings into one piece. For me it's so limitless and I'm able to express and incorporate a lot more than I could ever do with just one medium.

5) Which media did you use for your deviation Snow White? Why did you choose these specifically and which part of the deviation is what?



I utilized digital painting, photography, and pencil on watercolor paper. I wanted to use pencil over watercolor paper for the initial design because it had a nice organic feel to it and sort of an old storybook mood that I wanted to achieve. I took it into Photoshop so I could digitally paint the hair and eyes, and I incorporated photography for the hands and apple/rose because I wanted those to look somewhat realistic compared to the rest of the piece.

6) Do you have any tips regarding the use of several media in ones art – is there something one should keep in mind when combining the art forms?
I would suggest to rarely, if ever, use Photoshop filters. Add your own personal textures and feelings to the image because the filters in the program make it look synthetic and a bit cheapened. (The Gaussian Blur filter is the only one I find useful.) I also suggest creating a folder on your computer exclusively for stock pictures and one for textures. Take a camera wherever you go and take pictures of everything! It's a wonderful thing to have a lot of your own stock and textures at your disposal whenever you need them. And most importantly, take your time. Just because it's digital doesn't mean it's any easier than traditional and if you treat it the same way you'll have a richer product in the end.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions.

_{Note: In respect to the upcoming DIGITAL Mixed Media gallery I wanted to point out that *Odessa11’s work indeed belongs in this gallery because she uses different digital media to create them – the fact that her bases are often traditionally painted is not the criteria for putting it into DIGITAL Mixed Media.}

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