Exclusive Interview with Phantastes and 60+ Absolutely Stunning Digital Paintings

A: I do oil painting in the early part of my art progression, and I’m glad for that. Though I miss working on real canvas, I’m also happy that I’m able to experiment a whole lot more on digital canvas, thanks of course to the “undo” function – it has helped me widen the scope of my work, especially in being able to work on different styles and techniques. For example in portraits: it’s not that I’m not able to paint them at all in traditional but I’m afraid I might just overwork those details knowing me and make them look far worse than before. This is not a problem in digital with the eraser and undo command.

A: My current work has nothing to do with visual art. It involves a lot of communication, especially the listening part. I’m a general practitioner with special interest in dermatology. I was in the Emergency Department for a number of years before I settled into this line. There’s not much scope in furthering my career in Emergency Medicine in this part of the world though ideally that was my first choice.

A: The digital/traditional preference question will definitely invite some controversial answers because I’m such a person (laughs) so I’m going to elaborate a bit on this. If you are deciding whether to go traditional or digital, I’ll say – Join the digital revolution! In the fast-changing art landscape, traditional artists are finding it hard to survive. With my limited experience in commercial art, I do know that publishers do not want to know how you painted it or the feel of textures on canvas. The thing about digital workflow in general, compared to traditional, is that its a much more cost effective way to get your work straight to your clients. In traditional art, there’s one extra step of having to scan your work, and most likely the colors and contrast will not come out right. In a nondigital medium, how do you alter your work to their satisfaction, especially when there’s a deadline to beat? After my oil painting, I went into photomanip. I was impressed by the the ability to project a mood and at the same time, highlight a subject (in most cases female models) that is real. I was amazed by some of the masters in this genre especially at Deviantart, who were able to portray something that really exist and in such a painterly and poetical manner. It is a form of art that enables you to create anything you want using the technology of the day, and it is limited only by your imagination. Eventually I decided to go into full scale digital painting – this is a much more demanding field where every aspect of your work requires you to pour in even more imagination. I think I’m able to hone my creativity even more in this than any other medium and in a more artistically satisfying manner. So I’ll probably stay for quite a while over in this department. There’s also another type of work I did, which is motion art. I’ve done some short 10second flash animations by using previously made photomanips. This is only possible because of the layering in photomanips – I’m able to move my subject, make her hair flow in the wind and produce other special effects including inserting audio clips, with me as the invisible puppet master. Isn’t this an exciting new medium? Recently too, I’ve experimented with fingerpainting on an iPad though its not my personal one – it made me feel like a kid again, and I left a lot of smudges on the screen along the way! I think it’ll be a great new medium for the masses but Apple will need to bring in faster processors. I’ve also tried using iPad stylus, and it enabled me to get a more natural feel especially during the sketching and detailing parts. I believe Ipad doddling will be a common term for the future art world! You can bring it anywhere you like and do live sketching or painting. I think I might just start an iPad Art Cafe soon! At the end of the day, during my sunset years, I want to return to the real canvas for sentimental and not commercial reasons. Besides the smell of linseed oil, the sound of brush dabbing, the textural effect and the joy of seeing your work being framed and even the part on cleaning my brushes, traditional oil painting gives a whole lot more aesthetic experience and its unique because no one else can copy it.

A: I place more value in creating emotion or mood in my paintings than in the technicalities. Having said that I tend to want to improve on techniques. In some aspects like composition and colors, there are rules but I don’t follow them by the letter. If something doesn’t look or feel right to me, I’ll have that changed. On the whole, if my work of art is able to evoke strong emotion from someone, then I’ll be very happy with what I’ve achieved.

A: It’s not a level playing field, this art world. In an evolving landscape, traditional artists are already losing their grip as what the publishers really want to see is the end product – in print. Sad but we have to work to “fill our rice bowl” first, so digital is the way to go. I’m not a professional artist so I can’t give any first-hand advice on starting out. However, I would just like to say that if you really want to be a full time digital artist, you’ll have to get some academic qualification. You don’t have to join the academy straightaway after school; you could do that after you’ve gained some level of financial independence. I know of a successful artist who has published her own illustration storybooks before deciding to join the fine arts academy to improve herself.